Cutty looked at his cleansed wooden stirrer. How many times had he cleaned it that lesson? Maybe it would be a worthwhile investment to buy a couple more. Someone should really sell them by the pack. He tried to think back into the last time he was in the apothecary and didn't recall seeing any. He chocked it up to it not being profitable and out went his mini-notion of being a profiteer via potions.

The twelve, soon-to-be-thirteen, year old boy took the wooden stirrer and put it to potion. Anti-clockwise was the direction in which he stirred it 1...2...3...4...and, 5 times. He drew the stirring instrument out and laid it besides his cauldron within easy reach. That was all of the ingredients listed. Cutty picked up his wand again and casted calmly toward the fire to put it out.



Whilst he was waiting for his potion to separate, Cutty overheard one, Annabeth Whatever-whatever, utter something about not using the potion. He recognized this student from Defense Against the Defensive Arts class and he had found her approach in said class to be very clever, something he wished to mimic, in fact, but this...


...Earned Annabeth a stern glaring. What was she on about? Why make a potion if you had no plans to use it? Or maybe she was looking at this from a perspective he hadn't considered. Maybe? Annabeth's mind was such a dark place, in Cutty's opinion, it was very hard to tell. He wasn't going to say anything to her. At least not yet.

Having waiting what seemed like an age to Justine, she peered into her cauldron to see to her pleasure that the potion had indeed separated, and the solid bit was now a sparkling pink and the remaining liquid was still a vivid green.
She smiled softly to herself and quickly vanished the liquid.

The only thing left to do was to rub the solution on her face.
Which Justine was suddenly very nervous about, was she really supposed to rub this on her face? her face? What if she'd done it wrong? Justine wasn't keen on this bit at all.

Looking to her side, she saw a girl, not much younger then her and after some small consideration, she decided to ask the girl about it.
"Bon jour, excuze me mizz?" Justine said, her French accent coloring her words. English Justin, you have to speak English. She scolded herself, hoping the young girl wouldn't think poorly of her for her mess-up.

OOC: The discussion starts now. Again, it will not affect the class points, so your characters may leave if they don't want to take part. They are also welcome to join it even if they haven't finished brewing. You still have about 10 hours OOC to finish that. ^____^

Looked like people were anxious to begin the discussion, and Cosgrach felt like he had given those who wanted to leave enough time to leave anyway. Moving to his desk, he sat down, not looking what was left on it just yet. Instead, he turned to those waiting for it. He was pleased with the faces he saw. He smiled lightly to himself.

"So, some of you have already voiced their ideas," he said with this pleeeeaaaased demeanour. They could tell he enjoyed it. "Bart and this gentleman here (Andrew/Mordred) said girls are unnecessarily tiring themselves to be beautiful. Hufflepuff lady over there (Annabeth/Ivana R) said we don't need this potion, but we have an opposition from Ravenclaw (Adrienne/aaetha) because she thinks the society is forcing girls." He paused. Had he forgotten something? Misunderstood their points? They were welcome to correct him.

"What do you think? Do we really need such beautifying products? Why do some people still buy them if you think such products are unnecessary, or why would anyone need them if you think they are necessary?"

He was going to wait for them to explain further before explaining his opinion.

"Please wait for others to finish talking, raise your hand or stand up and tell us your name before speaking." So that people would see who was speaking, and names were always helpful.

Ana listened to the opinions of her classmates and to what Cosgrach was saying before she stood up to offer her own opinion. "Anastasia Konstantinova," she said, giving her name like he'd asked them to. Although why he couldn't just remember them she didn't know. He didn't appear to be afflicted with the same thing the rest of them were.

"Sadly I believe that a lot of these products are necessary for women. Andrew said that he thinks we go overboard, but for a lot of us we don't. Unlike men, and I have brothers so believe me I've observed the difference, girls are taught to care about their appearance from a very young age. I got my first make-up kit at four from a family friend and long before that I was being told that I had to be careful of my appearance, had what was and what wasn't ladylike drilled into my head for as long as I can remember. Most of us would prefer to go without make-up but as a society we've taught women to be extremely critical of our appearance, taught that if there is a flaw we need to fix it. It's something that women have had told to them for centuries, a guy telling us that we look beautiful without make-up or lotions, ointments etcetera that can fix the flaws we're trained to find doesn't do us any good," Ana explained, taking a breath before continuing on with her statement.

"A lot of us don't want to be bothered with such beautifying products but for the majority of us it can feel like a piece of armour. I know that sounds ridiculous but it's true. We feel naked if we step outside with a bare face. There is also the fact that for women a greater emphasis is placed on having a youthful appearance. We're judged everyday by our looks, not necessarily our talents. As a society we continue to buy these beautifying products in an attempt to look our very best, not necessarily because we want to but because in the world we live in we can't really afford not to, especially as we get older, which for women in certain jobs can be career ruining," or those were Ana's thoughts anyway. She could be wrong, but considering she was a girl that wasn't likely. She was also giving her own motivations for buying beautifying products. Piece said she sat back down in her seat and waited to hear what other people had to say.

Adi was just finishing up with the cleaning of his workstation when the Professor began to speak again. Time for the discussion!

When the older Slytherin girl was done speaking, he raised his hand "Aditya Rehman,'' he began. Pause. ''I think we need it to an extent. But some girls these days go overboard wearing those stuff.'' In Adi's opinion some of them look like clowns wearing all those weird things. He now continued. "We all are concerned about our looks and a good example would be all of us freaking out over our gray hair and wrinkles so I think we should just use a little. Natural looks are better. In my opinion when girls wear too much make up, they're just passing off as fakes. They look one way with it on and then when they get rid of it, they look totally different. They should just let others see the real them.'' So in general, Adi's thought was beautifying products were good but they should only be used in moderation.

Adrienne rolled her eyes at this one. What a dumb answer. “Adrienne Rebecca Colbert,” she said quickly, raising her hand, and then went on with her response. “First of all, a lot of girls don’t actually know that. The world is constantly telling us that we’re not good enough. Have you ever seen a muggle commercial for makeup?” Not that she made a habit of watching muggle television, but some of her friends back home in France enjoyed it, so she sometimes tagged along. “They’re all like, ‘here, look at a bunch of models who are literally flawless and you’ll never ever look like them, but if you buy our product maybe you’ll be slightly less pathetic’.” She dropped the weird high voice she was using to mock the announcers and went on. “Also, people all expect girls to look good all the time. Like, to the point where we get insulted if we don’t look perfect, but now it’s not okay for us to actually put effort towards making ourselves look that way?”

It was really hard for Adrienne to keep from getting properly mad at these idiots. Honestly, guys were so entitled. They always thought that girls wanted their approval, or even cared at all what they thought. And sure, she personally thought makeup was stupid, and sure, maybe she looked down on people who caved to the pressure as sort of weak, because hey, look at her, but still. At least she understood the decision. And at least she wasn’t calling anyone a clown. Merlin.

Annabeth waited for her classmates and then she joined the discussion, raising her hand. "Annabeth Glasswall," she stared at the teacher *yes, the Hufflepuff lady has a name, even if you hadn't bothered learning it.*

"I totally understand when Adrienne talks that there's huge social pressure on women to preserve their beauty or increase it, I think it explain when Anastacia says that women feel naked without make-up. And I agree with my friend Adi, too much make-up makes women look fake. Or clowns, as Andrew says.
As I said before, we don't need to surrender to the society pressure." enthusiastically, she stood and said, raising her voice "We can change it! Let's throw out this potion in front of the Ministry!" She took the jar with her potion and shook it in front of her head, lowered it and then paused briefly to looked around checking the other's reactions. Then the girl added in a calm voice,

"The beauty of a person does not depend on the marks she or he has on her or his face. It's beyond. When I was a little girl I asked my grandma why she had never used a cosmetic to attenuate the appearance of the stretch marks on her belly. She answered me that each stretch mark on her belly reminded her of her children - my father and my aunts and she said it was wonderful as she loved her children and she was proud of them. She told me that all the marks we have on our skin show us that we have a history and I agree with her. Would you have erased the scar from Harry Potter's forehead? I don't think so... We don't need to erase or hide our marks... "

Without knowing what to do, she sighed and sat down. Her message was given.

Bay raised his hand and stood up "Hi Im Victor Bay" he said shyly.. "My thoughts are this.. people are always searching to "live forever" these seekers are all throughout muggle and wizard history…. I think that because of this they go to the extreme to take care of their skin so it gives them some sense of feeling that their in the right direction… and i also believe that it has to do with marketing of the muggle world… add for this stuff is everywhere" he added.. which was true he saw a beauty product advertisement right above the corner store where he sneaks his candy.

Benjamin waited as he was supposed to, glancing every few moment at either his watch or his potion. It was supposed to separate at one point, the directions said and Ben had to admit, it was hard to notice it doing anything at first. Same lime green...same texture for the most part. Was it still not working absolutely correctly? he wondered to himself. But it was shortly after the 4th minute that he noticed the significant difference and paid closer attention to his work. Eventually the concoction began to appear like the description it had been given for this step; solid=pink, liquid=lime green.

Success!

Since he really wasn't into the discussion, opinionwise at least since he was still vaguely listening to what was going on around him, Ben took the time to slowly get up and dump out the liquid into the washbasin. Soon enough, he just had the solid, creamlike substance at the bottom as he righted his cauldron and returned to his seat. Now all he had to do was try it out on his skin, the second year scooping out a small quarter-size dollop and began applying it to his hands.

As the professor had continued speaking, Caleb had been crushing the beans in the mortar to get all the JUICE out. This was a longggg complicated potion wasn't it? Once he was sure the juices had been sufficiently squeezed, he added the juice to the potion and set the beans aside. Would he need them later? Meh.

Now to stir. Five times counter clockwise to be exact. He did so and then turned off the heater as instructed. Now he just had to wait for the potion to get all hard and stuff, right? GROSS. He wasn't in any rush to put this stuff on his SKIN.

So he sat and waited and listened to the discuss as his potion started to evaporate into the air. Was this harmful to their lungs?

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Toby was getting tired. Even though his body had slowed down considerably, his brain still went at its usual speed, and this could get exhausting. He found himself willing the liquid part of his potion to evaporate faster, because there was talk of a discussion. Toby knew how 'discussions' in class usually went. They were more like debates, with a lot of disagreements, and sometimes could turn into arguments. Well... he wasn't sure that was really his thing.

When the liquid in his cauldron had completely dissolved, Toby was left with a sparkling, sort of rose/blush-coloured solid thing at the bottom. It looked a little like some of the creams that his mother and grandmother own and kept on their dressing tables, which seemed like it was the right thing to look like.

Figuring he was pretty much down, Tobias found a suitably shaped tub-sized vial in his potions kit and began to transfer the final product of the potion into that. Once he'd moved it all over, Tobias set to work cleaning all the things he'd used in the class, especially his cauldron, and packed away his potions ingredients.

Eventually, everything was all packed up and Tobias was ready to leave. He eyed the potion, deciding it was probably best to try it while he was still in Culloden's lesson, just in case something went on. He was very careful, and used the stuff very sparingly, gently coating where he knew the lines were on his face. The Hufflepuff couldn't feel much different; just an odd tingling, but he'd know if it had worked once he got to a mirror.

All around him there was suddenly people getting into that discussion. Tobias winced for unknown reasons, looking around at everyone talking, and then at Culloden. He seemed to take a moment to make up his mind, but eventually Tobias stuffed his notes into his bag and heaved his cauldron off the desk.

There were a lot of people talking, and Culloden looked busy. Tobias hadn't seen anyone else leave yet, but he knew it was okay to go. He lingered for just another second, deciding if he would say goodbye... but no. If anything, this cauldron was super heavy and he wanted to get it back to his dormitory as soon as possible. He couldn't explain exactly why it was that he didn't want to stick around, but the idea of doing so gave him a bad feeling.

So he made towards the door.

Sander sat and listened as everyone shared their opinions on the topic of discussion. He had to admit that most of them had a strong argument regarding the need for beautifying products. He waited patiently before raising his hand and sharing his own thoughts.

“Hello, I’m Aleksander Strand, but everyone usually calls me Sander. I think that we need to study the term beautiful more closely. I mean how does one measure how beautiful a person is? Some people may consider a person beautiful while others may not. I’ve always believed that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve been brought up to believe that it doesn’t matter what the person looks on the outside. It’s what inside that counts. I mean a person can be what people consider as stunningly beautiful, but she could be mean and conceited on the inside, which I would consider to be ugly traits.” Sander paused to think.

“As for the need for beautifying products, I can understand why some girls feel the need to use them. I think that sometimes girls use these products to build up their own self-esteem. If you look better, you feel better inside. Girls also think that just by looking beautiful, people will like them more. The more people like you, the more popular you are. Unfortunately, in this day and age, girls think that is very important. But they’re wrong. If a person likes you just because of how you look, not what you really are, then how do you know who your real friends are?

I think using beautifying products should only be used if there’s a need to hide a temporary blemish. I mean who wants a pimple in the middle of your nose, right? Like the first thing people see is that pimple. You want to hide it so that you get their full attention and not see their eyes constantly looking at your pimple.” Sander looked around to see whether anyone else agreed with him on his last statement.

The bright acidic shade of green became apparent in the boys potion and he made quick work of dumping the excess to reveal and preserve the shimmery sparkled pink part. He stuck it into a large jar and scourgified his tools before putting them away and also cleansing the work surface onto which he'd just brewed this most useful of potions. He gave Toby a pat on the back as the boy slipped out and he stayed for discussion.



Cutty liked where this was going. They were going to talk about niches and needs and how people can be trained like puppets to buy what you want them to buy. At least that's how he saw it, until witches and makeup and pressure to be beautiful came into play, his hand, though was still in the air.


Annabeth Glasswall. Glasswall. Annabeth. That was her name! Cutty committed that to memory as he digested all that she as saying...and she was MAD! Clearly! Throwing out a potion in front of the Minstry would only make you a target. His hand was still raised from Professor Culloden's remark and he said, "But I think you're missing the point if you take that route. Products which alter the appearance of one need not be marketed exclusively toward the witch population, when men can benefit just as well." His raised hand turned to point towards their Potions Master. "I mean look at how many wrinkles Professor Culloden has!"

This was kind of a ridiculous and pointless discussion, but it amused her, so Alice decided to stick around.

What? There really wasn't any better way to entertain herself.

"Alice Fischer. I haven't got anything to add as of now, but I think most of you should stop only referencing girls and start thinking about guys, too. Hogwarts has a fat lot of those that are obsessed with beautifying their appearances. Narcissists in the making." Mhm. Female alienation for this beauty thing much? Excuse them ALL.

Wait. Wait. WAIT!!!! What the weird guy called Cutty thought he was doing? Annabeth looked at Professor Culloden's face and then to Cutty. Snorting, she raised her hand.

"What are you talking about, Cutty? Didn't you hear me? Wrinkles are fine... I mean, Professor Culloden doesn't have any wrinkle on his perfect face! And he'll be even charmer when his wrinkles begin to appear on his face!"

Oh, no! What have I just said? In front of the whole class! I call him charmer???? For Merlin's beard, you should learn to keep your mouth shut, Annabeth! She told herself in thought, though it was too late for regretting.
Pretending that she had said anything important, she sought refuge staring at the window.

OOC: Time to brew the potion has elapsed, and it's discussion-only now!


Anastasia and Adrienne, name noted. Cosgrach wasn't going to forget any of the names he heard here. And what they said was... interesting. A lot. True, too, come to think about it. He was going to elaborate on it once everyone had a chance to share their idea.



Annabeth? Cosgrach listened to her point with a weird expression on his face. She was... she made him uneasy. Something was up with her, but he couldn't tell what. Besides...

...errr...

"I don't think Ministry is responsible for it," he said softly, trying to calm her down. "You can try for L'oreal, though?" That was the most famous muggle beautifying company, right? Good thing they weren't muggles.

"What you are saying, though, the second part, makes sense to me, with respect to two boys' ideas over there." He was referring to Aditya and Sander, of course. Because...



..."I also think fixing a spot isn't wrong. But they are right. Going overboard is the wrong thing here, such as erasing all the wrinkles when you are 80 years old. Then, they are right too," he said, indicating to Adrienne and Anastasia, "because really, the girls are aaaall expected to be beautiful all the time. They are raised to do so, even, with all the bombardment of 'beautifying ads and products'." He looked around. So the problem was the companies, or had the society created those?

Yeah. Victor KNEW things. Cosgrach smiled at him. "I agree."

........WHAT did it have with him?!

Cosgrach gasped, frowned, his hand involuntarily touched his face before re realised he was being silly, and he folded his arms in the end.

But what nonsense was Annabeth speaking too? He was dismayed, panicked, but he tried his best not to show it.

"Thank you Annabeth," he addressed to the girl casually. He was touched she thought he wasn't old. "Let's not go personal Cutty pleasethankyou."

...then of course, Alice Fischer had to say that. No one but her, and help him forget Cutty and Annabeth.

It took ALL of Cosgrach's will not to snort and laugh hard. He flushed in the attempt.

As if he hadn't spend sleepless nights trying to brew spot potions in the dormitories or secretly used hair products.

"She is very right. Boys do it too, only, they tend to pretend they aren't doing." He sneered. He bet the boys here were worried about how they looked too, or would be soon.

"So, if we all agree that it is unnecessary to go overboard with it, why is it one of the biggest sectors both in our and muggle's society? Is it just the need to stay young, as Victor put it?"

Had she amused him? A grin appeared on her face as her hand shot up again. "I think people like to hide the fact that they use beauty products because there's something appealing about natural beauty. Like wanting to appear as if they're just are a certain way, while everyone else has to try. And they could be embarrassed that they aren't already perfect, or are just as obsessed with their looks as the next guy."

Pause. "They think it makes them better. And everyone wants to be the best. Always."

Another pause. "ALL genders." Because that was necessary to add.

And that served as a response to the current question and Culloden's musings, yes? Alice shut up for now.

Kace was hearing the discussion and he was interested to learn. The professor did bring up a good point. Why did girls and boys buy beauty products. He knew because people wanted to look young as the professor put it. Plus girls always wanted to look their best even if they were already. Kace heard the other question and raised his hand to say something.

"Kace Lecium sir." he stated his name first. "And i think it is one of the biggest sectors because every girl wants to look like the beautiful girl in their group of friends. They hear the comments like, Oh my god you are gorgeous and they wanted to be commented like that as well from what i observe..." he smirked. He had a lot of girl cousins so he knew only too well.

"But i know all in all they want to look the best. They see all these images and perfection, that they need to be that person." he shrugged and just gave his honest answer.

See! He looked at Alice Fischer with a sort of relieved smile, because he totally agreed and didn't see why the Beauty Potions Industry didn't take advantage of that too. He would. He so would. And then again.



Perfect face??!!! A charmer??!! Oh, this earned a barrage of wheezing, elderly laughs from Cutty just cause, Haha! Annabeth was so in love with Professor Culloden. Hehehe. Hufflepuffs.

Adi looked in amusement from Cutty to Anna. Cutty can be so dramatic sometimes but the Hufflepuff was inclined to agree with Anna. Scars did remind people what they went through and there was no need to be ashamed of that.

Now back to the Professor. Adi raised his hand. "I think it's exactly as Victor puts it, Professor. People are obsessed with looking young and wanting to look their best. And as the Gryffindor Captain says, everyone wants to be the best.''

Sander listened again and nodded in agreement with some of the things Professor Cullodeen summarized. Why was it one of the biggest sectors in both worlds? Sander really had to think about that one before raising his hand.

"I agree with Victor and Adi. I also believe that people, both men and women alike," Sander said looking at Alice to acknowledge what she had said. "feel the need to look their best no matter how old they are. And that's why the selling of these beautifying products is a booming business.

As long as people feel insecure about how they look, there will always be a need for those products. Using them to try to enhance their looks makes them feel good about themselves. And that is what the business of selling these products is all about. They cater to a person's vanity while at the same time targets their insecurity."

Tessa sat back, listening to the discussion happening around her, nodding in agreement to many of the points that had been brought up.

"Well, there is the factor of a person's self esteem," she pointed out. "Someone may put make-up on because they think it makes them look more beautiful, or makes them feel better. Part of that could be to look younger, but it may just be a part of what they want to do for themselves. This may get passed on to their children, family, or friends- and then it becomes like a ripple in a pond. They may only get compliments when they have make-up on," she pointed out.

Caelen had finally finished the potion and now wanted to get involved in the discussion. It was an interesting one after all. All about beauty. Which reminded her that she left a step out. The redhead had saved her bottle in case someone else REALLY needed it. It wasn't community service, it was simply the act of trying to help someone through the strange things that were happening at Hogwarts. And she meant STRANGE.

Anyway, discussion. What were they talking about? Okay, the necessity of beautifying products. Well, the girl who talked about society HAD a point. What if society said that having green hair and wearing a giraffe print dress was beautiful? Woman would be scrambling to dye their hair, right? And the griaffe population would decline because of the print demand. Wow. She felt really smart right now.

After waiting for people to finish talking, Caelen answered with her point.

"Well, I think the other girl is right. I kind of think it all boils down to what people say are popular. And part of that should be people we call famous. " Examples, smart Caelen needed examples. "Like for wizards it's cool to wer robes. Like our uniforms. But if we wore these around Muggles, we would look riduculous." Okay, when did she turn into a seventeen year old? Her Aunt did a good job teaching her.

Yes, her Aunt told her from a young age not to put too much pressure on society to tell her what things were what. She was kind of always taught to form opinions. Random teaching method from a hippie Aunt, but sure.

And the word society was getting thrown around a lot. They kept using it. A lot. It sounded like part of the story she wrote for the extra homework points. And the little redhead with the braid almost laughed thinking of the class as a group of stuffy old men who made the rules.

Capt'n Alice didn't disappoint him with her ideas, and he grinned at her again. He let others answer her first, though.

Oh, he wanted to read those ideas in her homework too.

"Just girls? I'm 41 and a male, and I wouldn't mind a compliment." Which, Cutty just shattered there by stating his face was all wrinkly and ugly.

Mean.

So, he was just going to ignore the smirks. and laughs and whatever mischief was on his mind. Maybe ten points and handcuffs weren't enough? Did he yearn for more?

Cosgrach sighed. Why so ambitious, the world? To get whatever they wanted. It was just... sad.

Said the ambitious Slytherin who used to categorise people by their potentials until not long ago.

"Right, right," he commented in a sad voice.

He was... thoroughly impressed. Great thinking! A Ravenclaw. Of course.

"Brilliant," he commented, "I fully agree with it."

"So maybe, instead of fighting the companies, we should make people realise they are beautiful without those products too?" Hmm? How plausible was that, people? He tried to make eye contact with them all, before getting up.

"Okay, I don't want to steal from your lunch break, so the discussion is over. Thank you for staying and sharing your opinions. I hope to read them in homework." Which translated as he wanted to read their HOMEWORK.

"Have a nice day, people." Now, out.

It was amazing that anybody had commented on her small declaration of love. Not even Cutty. It was great. She would try not lead it to personnal, as Culloden had asked to. Moreover, Cutty was weird and she liked weird guys.

Annabeth raised her hand. "Professor, the answer to your question is quite simple. Money. Ambition. The need to be atractive is a natural necessity, in terms of Nature, we can say that the more attractive an individual can be, he greatest chance of success in life (having a relationship, a family). It makes women and men show themselves as attractive as possible - by using cosmetics or taking care of their health." She grinned and then added, "In other hand, the need to stay young isn't a natural necessity. It was created and is kept by the cosmetic industry, just to sell their products. If they kept selling cosmetics just to increase the already attractive young appearence, they would sell only for a part of population. But when they create the need to stay young and cosmetics that promisse this effect to old people, they can sell their products to almost overall population. Only babies and children won't use their products... Though, I think that when they realise it, they will create a product to prevent wrinkles and stretch marks and they will say that it shall be used during childhood to be more effective..." She sighed and grinned. She loved a good discussion.

"Thank you, Professor. It was a wonderful class. Have a nice day you too!" She grinned, though she was bit disappointed as she was expecting for more discussions.

ooc: Sorry for posting after the teacher having dismissed the class, I was writing and didn't noticed that Starshine had already posted, I just saw it when I posted. And as there are people who subscribes this post, I thought it wouldn't be useful just say goodbye.