Jasmine was scribbling notes furiously, trying to keep up with all of the information being presented. Class was really zipping along and Professor Culloden had quickly moved on to the next question. Now this was one that Jasmine had an opinion about. She raised her hand to add her two cents to the discussion.

"I think that Muggles can and do brew potions although they don't call them potions. I'm not sure if they could brew our potions successfully, but they do have their own. They create concoctions by combining various ingredients and use them for some of the same purposes as witches and wizards. They don't have magic on their side though."

What kinds of potions were they? Well. Eden thought....lots. Mhmm. She was so smart. Notreallythough. She could tell this lesson would be hard for her to understand..she squinted at the board and...tried to scribble everything down. Yep. Two types of potions...ones that altered something..ones that...were themselves? Eden didn't get this. Ugh. But Professor Culloden was in a HURRY today and she just didn't feel like raising her hand and feeling all DUMB DUMB. So she just...sigh. She just tried to keep up, really.

Oh...hewaswritingmore. That made MUCH more sense--Eden quickly jotted it all down and looked up at the next question. Oh--homework. Boo. That seemed like a LOT, didn't it, Mister POTIONS guy?! Eden squinted up at him and raised her hand. "Sir--no. All potions need some sort of magic done--every single brew needs at least one use of a wand--so no, a muggle can't actually make an accurate potion." She said softly. She had JUST read something about that in one of her textbooks...so this was VERY lucky. Hehe.

Questions were being asked and Grayson had generally stayed quiet for a while. Why? He had no freaking idea. For the time being, he was more or less listening in to what the others were saying and taking a few notes of his own. Was this going to be useful? Again, he had no idea. It certainly wasn't as boring as he thought it would be.

And then came up a new question.

And he piped up. Because he had opinions and people needed to hear them, obviously.

"WELL," he started, raising his hand in the air, "I don't think they can brew our potions exactly as it is because of the magical properties in them. You have the ingredients which come from magical creatures and plants and in some potions, spells are required. How in the name of Merlin will they complete that?" It was impossible. "Besides, someone will have to explain where the things come from." Meaning someone would get in trouble with the Ministry. Just saying.

DO they have potions? "They have experiments and medicine and whatnot. Some of them are drinks. They can count as potions, I guess." Shrug.

...Zahra had spent the entire lesson trying to figure out how to sit with both Mari AND Puck. Puck was over there, being WAY COOL in that Puck The Dorm Buddy way, and Mari was looking like she needed a PEPPER UP POTION. Tricky.

Tricky.

Plus CULLY Potions man was in a good mood so Z didn't want to make him UNHAPPY.

The struggle was real. And apparent. She kept shooting Puck little looks of distress. WHAT TO DO.

Huh? What was that crazy old man on about? MUGGLES BREWING POTIONS?!? "Haha... Professor... you're crazy. I like you, but you're crazy. Muggles can't brew POTIONS. It wouldn't be POTIONS then." Man, what a crack up he was. Did Puck hear him? Mari? Nudge! Nudge! hahaha

Wow, this class was going really FAST. It seemed that Lux had hardly enough time to record notes before another question was being asked. At this rate she was going to have a serious cramp in her right hand.

Flailing her wrist to shake a cramp out, Lux raised her hand to answer the next question. "Well, they don't have OUR potions, but I do think they have a certain type of their own. They make concoctions with different ingredients. For medicines and such."

More questions. Lots of questions. Maddie liked to ASK the questions and not answer them but she did have thoughts.

"Muggles can't brew OUR potions. Especially if the definition we came up with says our potions have a MAGICAL outcome." But there were things similar to potions, like the chemistry whats-it that was mentioned earlier. "They do have items that cause physical changes to them, though. Like hair dye. A mixture of ingredients working together to have a change on someone. S'like a potion minus the magic."

Again, Toby was working on getting all this WRITTEN DOWN before he tried to answer. Needed to write down the theory if he had any sort of chance of remembering it.

Finally, he raised his hand.

"Uhhh..." Wait. No. He hadn't thought this thrOUGH. WHAT WAS HE GOING TO SAY. "On the board there's stuff about physically altering and healing and behaviour altering, and that's like medicines and stuff. And they have cosmetics and stuff, which are sort of like potions. I think muggles have their own kind of potions but, because they're not magic, it's not the same, because of the definition you put up. With those it's not magic, it's muggle science." You could probably go into whether magic and science overlapped, but that was more complicated. Toby figured Culloden was probably looking for basic answers here. "They could probably TRY to brew our potions if they had what they needed, but a lot of the time you need wand-waving and stuff, so perhaps not with those ones."

Norah scribbled notes frantically on her parchment. No potion brewing AND her hand was cramping up. Sigh. The professor was moving so fast that she didn't even have time to answer any of the questions. Sensing a window to get an answer in, she shot her hand into the air. "They can't make OUR potions because they don't have magical powers. How well a potion works isn't just based on how we follow directions, but also our magical ability. But they do have their own types of things that are LIKE potions. Like medicine-y things. They're called something like that, I think."

There. She had participated. Now back to speed note taking. Yippee.

Peter was lost. He did not know this adult was talking about. But a tiny voice in the back of his head was telling him to be nice for just this class and Peter was listening to it now because the voice let him go off on Hook. Which was understandable. You can't just let Hook run loose in this Castle.

Still not knowing what a muggle was. But he knew what a potion was somehow.

"They can make fake ones and sell them off because some adults are not too smart"

It would not be polite to say all adults were stupid..

There were loads of potion types out there and they could spend a whole class discussing them--which was real likely given this was a theory class but thankfully it was just listing, listing she didn't need to be a part of because of the list that had been run through by the others in the room. Did she even need to speak for this class? It seemed just as prudent writing everything down and she wasn't getting looks for it.

Lex considered the next question. Potions for muggles?

"I don't think they can brew any, none as effective as ours anyway. All I know is they have their own liquids they use for stuff but they don't cover as wide a variety as ours do." There was a potion for EVERYTHING almost. Muggles didn't have that luxury.

And an even longer list. Things she'd need for her NEWTs no doubt and with no Lottie in this class, the Gryffindor was forced to take notes for herself. What had this life come to?

Gabe was hardcore note!taking at this point; his quill flying back and forth in quick succession across the page. He was so iNTO this theoretic part. The talking and discussion. He and his tutors at home would spend HOURS debating ingredients and their uses.

Fumbling with his glasses a bit, he pulled back; rechecking what he'd written. He could read this outloud. Easier to do that, actually. And it wasn't reading from a textbook. Just from his notebook. So, that was okay.

....

"Muggle use various herbs, plants, minerals, and fungi...Uh, yea....but they typically call them...erm, medication and supplements..." The first bit had been repeated to death. Gabe didn't want to repeat or copy anyone.

Sophie was writing down every suggestion people were saying, no matter which of the two categories it fell into, and for the first time she was wishing they were brewing a potion instead of doing theoretical stuff. She didn't like feeling like she had to prove herself to Culloden, especially in front of everyone, because she knew HE already knew how great she was. So. There really was no need to answer questions aloud, was there? Really? What WAS the point in it? Did he want to see what people knew, or was it intended as a class discussion sort of thing to bounce ideas off each other? What was Culloden's thought process behind it?

She had good answers, she knew she did. But... did she... really want to rub it in? Give people like Kettleburn fodder to call her a know-it-all? A suck-up? Culloden's pet?

...Maybe not. But. What would he do if she didn't speak up and stayed silent for the whole rest of the class? Would he notice? Would he call her out on it? Give her disappointed looks? Disown her forever?

"Um," she started, her hand in the air at the mere THOUGHT of him demoting her from his favorite student spot, "for the first question, Muggles can't brew our potions, of course, which is why they're our potions. There's all sorts of things that go into brewing a potion, from the magical properties of the ingredients, to sometimes needing to stir magically with a wand, and all sorts of stuff like that." She wasn't speaking as eloquently as she could, but the jolt to her system at the idea of Culloden disowning her had shaken her up a little. She took a brief moment to gather her thoughts before pressing on.

"And maybe it's like... I dunno, the potion can tell if the person making it is magical or not. S'like..." How could she put it into words that make sense? "I dunno, I think it's kinda like... wands? Like." She looked frustrated for a brief moment, trying to figure out how to best make an analogy out of her love for wandlore. "If a Muggle had a wand in their hand, it's not like... they could perform actual magic with it, 'cause they're not magical, even though the wand itself has those kinda magical properties. S'kinda like that with a potion - the potion itself can be magical and stuff, but like... the person BREWING it isn't, so it's not gonna work." Did he know what she meant?

She wasn't sure, so she left him hanging with that, not even bothering to answer the second question.

Wait- homework already? Did that mean that they could leave? But they hadn't even made a potion yet! Oh well, he turned in his seat ready to hop off but Culloden kept speaking? Did that mean class wasn't done?

Sigh.

Muggles and potions? Well.....if they had a potion were you wand wasn't needed..... The thirteen year old raised his hand again. "It's like picking your nose in public sir. Everyone can do it, but that doesn't mean that should." Or really...anyone for that matter.

Angel raised her hand. "Professor they can do potions, because they have those hooo-doooo ladies, or whatever they are called." Angel wasn't sure she had never been allowed near one even though she had wanted to. "Anyway they can't do our potions because they don't know about some of the creatures that we use in our sort of potions."

This potions business was dull, and Red amused herself by untangling the ribbon from the handle of her basket and weaving it into a plait with her hair. It was blue gingham, which looked rather nice against her red cloak... even if it wasn't red. It would be better if it was red.

She kicked her heels against her chair and unplaited her hair, although at least she was interested in this question. POTIONS. Such nonsense. "My mum and I make chicken soup, and it's just... chicken broth and chicken and carrots and potatoes and onions and sometimes celery and a bit of sage and obviously noodles, when it's a noodles day, and we once added basil, although I think that's a bit strong, 'specially if you have the noodles going." She tapped her heels again. "Point being... it's plenty magical when you're feeling sick, and there's nothing magic in it except love."

Scirbleeeeee. Adi was scribbling as fast as Jasmine was beside him. So many types of potions! And they'd have to find the the meaning of all? Meh. So many words... anyway. Moreeeee notes!

Adi paused to ponder on the next questions. Raising his right hand because his left one still clutched the quill, he said, "I don't think they could brew our potions, Professor. For one thing, we need magic sometimes that requires a wand to complete the potions. Also, they do have potions but they don't actually call them that.'' Not unless you lived waaaaay back in the stone age (okay, maybe he was exaggerating there) in India.

This question was EASY! There were lots of muggle potions! Of course, that depended on what you thought of as a potion, nobody was raining on her parade here. Anyway, muggle potions. The firstie should probably think of some ideas, huh? Like actually work out examples and help the class go on?

Well, mood potions would be medications, right? Like the ones the little blonde had to take in third and fourth grade to calm her down. But that all ended when the brown eyed kid got creative and threw all of the little white pills down the sink. Yeah, she got in trouble for that one. Mom wasn't happy, and another pill bottle was almost prescribed before they realized she would just do it again.

And beauty potions were like the makeup that Newton always wore to make herself look presentable. They certainly made her go from a solid 10 to like an 100. Stupid perfect sister. Anyway, uneeded makeup was like beauty potions. Bam. She had the answer. After writing all of the notes on a piece of parchment, Ophelia smiled and raised her hand.

"Well, the mood potions would be like medicine. There's some medicine that creates different moods for some reason. Um.. my mom told me about them. And the beauty potions would be like makeup, right? That has all kinds of chemicals in it and changes your appearance. So yeah? Muggles have potions too, just in different forms.

Eerrrrrrrrrrrr......................... did he ever mention how he SUCKED at theory? Well... he did.

Yeah.

See. THIS was evidence of that.

Zeke listened in to the questions and answers stage (which was stilllll gooiiiinnggg zomg) and he had been TEMPTED to raise his hand on a number of occasion, but figuring his answers were stupid opted not to. Until now. This one, he could maybe answer.

"They can't brew OUR potions, Professor, cause they don't have things like unicorn hair and stuff... but they can brew their own sort of things, like medicines and stuff." That was like potions, ingredients that combined to do things. Yep.

Or had that already been said? He was having trouble keeping up this lesson. Like VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM with information, and his head was aching a little from having to THINK about things.

Were muggles able to brew potions?

Benny didn't know offhand and wasn't that familiar with behavior. On instinct he turned to look at Angel, figuring either she or AJ might have something to say about the topic seeing as they were both muggleborn. Their entire family besides them was muggles. Sure enough when Angel spoke up, she mentioned that they could indeed do potions at least somethings similar.
Hoodoo ladies?

" Definitely not our type of potion but I think they can brew their own," he mused, deciding to add his two cents. "Like what was said, its all up for what anyone deems as a potion." Like what had happened at the beginning of class where everyone had their own definition of the word. And in his memory, a lot of what was brewed only had magical world ingredients to make them truly magical.

The Gryffindor was struggling to keep up. It was just WAY too early to be learning so much all at once. But he considered the question. Did muggles have potions of their own? Well of course not! If they had potions, then there wouldn't really be a need for potions class would there? 'Cause it'd all just be common knowledge stuff that they'd probably learn in muggle studies instead or something. But still, he listened to other answers and nodded his head approvingly where fit.

"Not potions exactly, but there are substances and things that can do the same stuff," did that call for an elaboration? Sigh. "Like taking a cold medicine will do the same thing as a Pepperup Potion..." A lot of people mentioned makeup and appearance altering things so he wouldn't reiterate that. "Or like how eating a chocolate cake can have the same effects as a cheering potion."

He smiled, moving to the front, once everyone was done.

"Almost all of you said they can't, and it's true. Muggles can't brew our potions, even if they had all the ingredients. Magic requires magic to work." Did it make sense? "Many of you also said they have medicine and stuff that's not quite a potion, but magical in a sense. Angel mentioned muggle witches, also called voodoo. That's right too, if a pill cures you, you would call it magical, even if it's not really magical. What I'm trying to say is, they don't have potions in our sense, but it's also sort of relative." He paused as the blackboard updated itself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

Muggles can't brew our potions, nor do they have magical potions of their own.

"Now, what can potions do? One thing per person, please."

Soph had actually turned around a bit in her chair to watch both Kyroh and Dot as they gave their answers - they were both hilarious and adorable at the same time, did they know? Giving answers like that in a class like this to a guy like Culloden - well, it definitely made her giggle, and at the end of both of the second years' answers, she turned back around to gauge Culloden's reaction to it. Heheheeh. He didn't seem QUITE as amused, but it was still funny all the same.

It wasn't like she had ever needed his shared amusement to laugh at something anyway.

At his next question, she grinned broadly and, feeding off the lighthearted sort of energy she picked up from Ky and Dot, Soph raised a hand and offered dramatically, "They can save lives."

No example given. Just the FACT.

What can potions do? Well that was a super broad question. The Gryffindor tilted his head and refrained from letting out a chuckle at Sophie's rather dramatic response. "Can't they basically do anything?" Basically? Right..? Or at least it seemed like they could do everything with the way people were obsessed with the subject.

Listening carefully to Professor Culloden, Lux jotted down the next note that he had added to the board. Muggles really did try their own form of magic, and she did not know much about it, though she HAD heard of voodoo. Didn't it have something to do with poking dolls with pins?

The next question was rather broad, and she raised her hand before giving an answer. "Potions can do anything because they are AWESOME!!" Was it obvious that this was her favourite class?

Oooooh Dot was talking about soup! He would have been able to follow if she didn't continue to list ingredients but the second year nodded, he sorta got it!

Culloden too right??

No? Yes? Kyroh offered a small smile to the man. Yeah. He got it.

The only thing that sucked about not being able to pick your nose in public was that what if you had a booger dangling? Kyroh almost wanted to check now but it would be like a Muggle trying to make a sleeping draught, not gonna happen. Once again his hand went up, feeling a little more upbeat about this lesson. "Then can make someones day infinitely better." He paused. "Or infinitely worse." That was ONE thing. Just TWO parts okay?