Herbology: First Year: Week 4: Friday

Professor Pomona Sprout
Friday
Gryffindor Time: 10:00
Ravenclaw Time: 11:00
Hufflepuff Time: 10:00
Slytherin Time: 1:00

Hello again class. I hope that you will be able to settle down enought to study the plant I have in mind. If you will gather around this table here... Thank you. In front of each of you I have set a plant that is of the orchid family. If you look at the flowers you should be able to recognize it as such.

I was planning for you to help gather the seeds of this orchid, the Cheer Orchid, while I told you more about it. First, let me show you how to gather the seeds. You won't need gloves as the seed are very gentle on the skin. Look for the pods at the base of the plant. They are easily distinguished from the rest of the plant by their red and green mottled color. Slice the pod off the plant cleanly and hold it over one of the silver dishes. Look for the split down the middle and slice it cleanly in half. Then scrape off the seeds from the insides. Do this while I tell you about the plant.

The Cheer Orchid
Hilarus Festium
The Cheer Orchid is a plant that blooms around mid November and by Midwinter its seeds are ready to be harvested. The seeds are commonly dried and ground into a powder for use. The main use is blowing it around the room where a party is to be held. It settles into a fine powder on the surfaces of seats and dishes where the unsuspecting guests sit. It is said to taste very pleasant, like vanilla, but many people avoid eating it because of its side affects of extreme giddyness, chattering, and laughter that is so hard and long that people occasionally choke. After the effects have worn off, you are likely to experience moodiness and melancholy. Cheer Orchid powder is safe when sat upon or obsorbed through the skin, causing far lighter effects than when ingested and livening up a party considerably.

Please bring your dishes up to me. I will give a prize of a packet of powder to the person who has collected the most. No homework!

Potions: First Year: Week 4: Friday

Professor Severus Snape
Friday
Gryffindor Time: 11:00
Ravenclaw Time: 1:00
Hufflepuff Time: 1:00
Slytherin Time: 11:00

Today we will see just how much your brains have learned. I have chosen a potion that you have made before. I will give you five minutes to study the instructions on the board before removing them. You will then make that potion from memory. This is because you will not always have a book to refer to. Ready? Go.

Potions Blackboard
Concentrating Potion
Ingredients:
Fire mint
Colloid of silver
1 Sickle
Water
Flobberworm slime
3 Gnome teeth, crushed
Dragon's blood

Instructions: Fill your cauldron with 5 1/4 cups of water. Next add a tablespoon of fire mint. Stir once. Add the gnome teeth and let sit for 5 minutes. Crush five grains of dragon's blood and rub it on the sickle. Pour two 1/2 teaspoons of the colloid into a bowl and dip the sickle in it. Put your cauldron over the fire and bring it to a simmer without boiling it. Pour in the colloid and drop in the sickle. When a light green steam rises from your cauldron, bring it off the heat. Pour half the mixture into your alembic. Set the alembic over a low flame, put a bowl below the spout of the alembic and wait while it distills.




Five minutes are up! You now have forty-five minutes to complete your potion.

Class is now over. Bottle up your disasters and bring it forward. Your homework is to read up on the recipe and figure out where you went wrong. I will see you again in January.

History of Magic: First Year: Week 4: Friday

Professor Cuthbert Binns
Friday
Gryffindor Time: 1:00
Ravenclaw Time: 10:00
Hufflepuff Time: 11:00
Slytherin Time: 10:00

For the past few classes, we have been comparing photos of 'traditional' roles that witches and wizards take in the imagination of the Muggle mind. I have asked you to write about these historical translations and what you think they mean. For the last exercise, I ask you to compare how they are alike and how they are different in their meaning. Imagine that you were a muggle, coming across them. How would you feel? What would they mean to you?

Thank you class, that will do. Please put your quills away. Class is dismissed.