History of Magic 2PM, Monday February 1st, 2010 Classroom

OOC Reminders:
>>Assume your character is on time and present. If you have story reasons for a character being late, alert the instructor via PM.

>>If you are a new member/student, assume your character has been present in classes. Don't be afraid to post!

>>There are NPC students but YOU are the stars of the show!

>>Be courteous to everyone's availability.

>>Above all, FUN!! (and don't destroy the classroom)

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As the second years came into the classroom they would see Sissel leaning against the lectern, one foot perpendicular to the other. He was wearing mirrored sunglasses and was holding a small phial that shone slightly.

"You can put your bags down at the tables," he said, "but don't sit down. Books, parchment, writing quills, you won't need any of that today."

Remi meandered in, this class was either an amazing class or a class tat was blah. He was about to sit down when he heard the professor talking.

"You can put your bags down at the tables,""but don't sit down. Books, parchment, writing quills, you won't need any of that today." Great... what he planning today. Hopefully it was fun, Remi rarely has "fun" in any of his classes anymore. Everything is too easy, too...predictable.

"So what do YOU have in store for us today..." Remi began to drop his bag somewhere near one of the corners of the room." If were not sitting, writing, or reading, then what are we doing? taking a field trip?" He wasn't in the mood to sneak around the classroom and be unnoticeable. If they weren't going a field trip, Remi would most likley leave class.

Sissel smiled at Remi and other students began to enter. The first wave was blue and yellow, with Philo Falkin coming in along with Remi and the infamous greenish haired Hufflepuffs behind the boys. Nice to see Heliotrope could be easier swayed from the blue couch in the enchanted mist outside the door.

Sissel snapped his fingers and pointed at Remi. "You could say it's a field trip. But not a real field trip. At least, we aren't going anywhere on such short notice because that would have required paperwork, portkey authorization or Floo pardon, permission forms, McGonagall giving me the stink eye because of short notice, and so forth..."

He stood up from the lectern. "We'll be off on this 'field trip' shortly. But can anyone identify what this is?" He raised the phial higher for everyone to see, where a glowing silvery thread gently spiraled in its container.

"You can put your bags down at the tables," he said, "but don't sit down. Books, parchment, writing quills, you won't need any of that today."


"Awesome! Class will have to be fun," the words just poured out of Gertie as soon as she heard the professor's pronouncement. When Gertie realized that her words could be misconstrued, she beamed a half apologetic smile at her professor. It was rather well known that Gertie had an attention issue and sitting quietly during a lecture was hard work. It took a lot to keep her mind on the subject and her body from wriggling.  Even now she was bouncing a bit as she walked to her normal seat, carelessly dropped her bag on the table and went to stand with the other students around the professor.

"We'll be off on this 'field trip' shortly. But can anyone identify what this is?"

Being one of tallest people in the room gave Gertie a nice view of the vial. It was pretty looking with the silvery whips and swirls. Her fingers twitched with the urge to touch, but instead she just twisted a piece of her long hair in between her fingers.

"The luck potion stuff. I don't remember the name but umm doesn't that give you lots of luck if you drink it and nothing can go wrong. fillssomething." Gertie called out without raising her hand. Oops

"You could say it's a field trip. But not a real field trip. At least, we aren't going anywhere on such short notice because that would have required paperwork, portkey authorization or Floo pardon, permission forms, McGonagall giving me the stink eye because of short notice, and so forth..."

Remi was ready to leave but he became tempted when he saw a glimpse of something "We'll be off on this 'field trip' shortly. But can anyone identify what this is?"

Remi began to think about what was in the vial, what was silvery and tiny and "The luck potion stuff. I don't remember the name but umm doesn't that give you lots of luck if you drink it and nothing can go wrong. fillssomething." his train of thought was gone.

"Liquid luck some say, but the proper term is Felix Felicis." Remi has always wanted to carry around some of this, in case something ever went bad. Now he re-involved in the class. Either they were learning how to make it, someone was winning it, or someone was ingesting it. Of course, doing all 3 would be nice.

Sissel stifled a smirk but the grin still crept up the edge of one lip. "You're very close, Gertie," Sissel said as he swirled the contents of the vial. "Though it's not my tenure of expertise I suppose that's two points to Ravenclaw, Remi, for a correct definition of Felix Felicis. However, this isn't that." Although imagine the kind of field trip one would luck out on if they downed some liquid luck before a class where they forgot a big project!

"The color is off. Luck potion or Felix Felicis is gold in color whereas this is silver. These could be considered lucky or it could not be depending on the person. In fact, this isn't even a potion in here." Sissel began walking in front of the cluster of assembling students, holding the vial high for them all to see.

"This silver wisp you see is a literal strand of memory. A witch or wizard can copy their memory to store elsewhere to ease up their mind. When removed like this memories act like a potion. They're most commonly stored in devices called pensieves. Which leads me to the nature of our field trip. Keep up."

Sissel crossed to the door. Not the entrance to the classroom but the door opposite, the one that had been heavily locked all year. With a wave of his wand Sissel unlocked the complex warding and led the students inside.

The room was cubic square with ruddy dark stones that caught the light of two opposing torches, as there were no windows. The torches were almost unnecessary; plenty of shimmering light came from the circular 'pool' in the middle of the floor. The depression had been altered greatly since last fall.[1] Though it looked to be filled with shimmering water the pool was completely dry, it was just flowing lights.

There was an inviting set of stairs downwards.

"Pensieves are relatively simple things to use," Sissel said nonchalantly before what was the world's largest pensieve. Work at TTI had caused him to use pensieves of varying sizes. "Does anyone happen to know to safely use a pensieve or hazard a guess as to how it works?"

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((OOC: Any second years, even those yet to post, are welcome to contribute. The 'field trip' will begin with Sissel's next post, though I may have my own students post before that))

1.	Previously mentioned in ...We Don't Need Roads - Oct 29

Heliotrope had never been to this part of the castle before. She had been to the History of Magic classroom every Monday Wednesday and Friday as it was scheduled. It was the one section of the castle that had blue plush couches instead of benches, covered with enchanted mist. It had shown up outside the classroom one winter, the nook of the hallway with features of mermish history.

Helio had even heard of an exclusive bathroom for prefects with a great pool said to connect out to the Black Lake. That and the 2nd floor girl's bathroom lead to a drowned chamber.

But Helio had never been in this room off the History of Magic classroom before, nor had she ever seen water like the kind filling the pool in the floor. Before Professor Jowd finished his question her instincts and taken hold of her and Helio dived into the pool.

There was no water in here. Heliotrope met no resistance her her dive. When her hands hit the bottom the dive turned into a somersault. Then she was on her back and then she was sitting, head just visible in the misty lights.

"Heliotrope, let's try not to break necks," Sissel said, "or Professor McGonagall isn't going to let us go on anymore of these field trips." That would be something odd to explain if it happened. You couldn't harm yourself from memories.

Sissel gestured to the pensieve pool. "Well, you can see it's perfectly safe. Walk in and spread yourselves out before we begin. No more jumping."

He stood on the top step, the lights playing over his trainers as he prepped the vial of memory. "The question still stands. Has anyone ever heard of a pensieve before?"

Watching Heliotrope completely tumble from her dive into fake water was humorous. Remi stifled a chuckle as he watched the "pool" slowly stir around. He saw the vial in the professor's  hand, so this is what a memory looked like. He always thought it was a a ball or a cloud shape form with colors reflecting the memory. But a silver strand of what looked like hair...that was not as exciting.

"The question still stands. Has anyone ever heard of a pensieve before?"

Remi had no idea. He knew what a pensive was, or at least what he thought it was.  He would at least say something to keep the professor happy. With a quick raise of the hand, Remi spoke up after a few moments, " It's a thing that...muggles get at their...banks? Something to do with money." Remi was pleased that he was actually going to learn something in this class.

Sissel had not expected for a literal interpretation of the syllables. A pen sieve. Which, theoretically, would be a handy office tool if you had too many writing utensils in a pen caddy and needed to sort through the mess for a certain kind of pen.

"Not sure what you mean, Remi. Things muggles and most people get at their banks include checkbooks and ledgers. What muggles have to keep their pens in are pocket protectors, which are little pouches they fit in a pocket that hold pens."

He uncorked the memory vial. "A pensieve, on the other hand, allows a witch or wizard to reexamine their memories. Not just recollect them, but view them from a new angle. There's a lot of things magic people can sense that they might not be aware of the first time around, so pensieves were created to store and examine memories. When I drop this memory in it's going to feel like we're moving as the memory forms itself but we aren't really. Everyone ready?"

Even if there were complaints, the strand of memory already fell from the vial. The surface did not ripple but a cloud of dark colors flowed from the spot it entered. Soon the surface of the room was gone as the class experienced moving lights and colors flying upwards as a scene took shape...

The class was standing in an underground hall. Orange light reflected from torches and sand covered the floor, seeping in through cracks in the roughly hewn stone walls. Sissel noted that one of the Ravenclaws, Philo Falkin, looked rather shocked at the surroundings.

"If any of you were on the class trip last summer you might have an idea of where this is. Anyone care to venture a guess?"

  "You're very close, Gertie,"

Gertie beamed at the professor, very close was pretty good in Getie's book. She probably would have smiled even if the professor had told her flat out that she was wrong, as she was nearly always smiling. Gertie took a step closer to get a closer look at the vial. It was pretty. She liked how the silvery strand floated, twisting.

Gertie immediately followed the professor as he started to walk. She grinned when she realized they were going through the locked door. She'd always wondered what was behind that door. Sometimes, she paused to look at it wondering if she could find away to get through it without getting caught. The urge to look inside would pass and she'd move on to the next thought of fancy.


Disappointment turned Gertie's lips momentarily downward when she noticed the utter plainness of the room. It was your average room, a bit square really.  All it had was a silly pool. Pools were not that exciting. She had expected a monster or something rare. Something spectacular. Why was a pool behind a lock door? Did students drown in it? It didn't look that deep to Gertie.

Gertie giggled when Helio dove into the pool. Gertie almost called out how was the water but she stopped when she noticed that nothing spilled out when the girl jumped. It wasn't actually water. It was something else.

Curious, Gertie walked to the edge of the pool and stepped in just as the professor gave the instructions. It was interesting how she felt like she sank a bit when she stepped in but she wasn't getting "wet", not like a normal pool. Before Gertie could ask more questions the professor had tipped the memory into the pool and lights exploded.

Pretty colors whirled around before settling into a strange place. The stone floor of the castle had been replaced by sand and the walls were rough.

"Are we in an Egyptian pyramid?" Gertie asked curiously. She hadn't gone on the field trip during the summer, her parents couldn't afford it but she remembered something about Egypt.

"Another very close answer, Gertie, three points to Hufflepuff" Sissel said, catching sight of each of the faces of the students. Which ones were in awe, which looked motion sick. "This is a memory of a tomb but not a tomb under a pyramid. This was constructed in an early period before pyramids were constructed. Speaking of, there's usually far less chambers within a pyramid than what you may think."

Sissel stood at the front of the class before a turn in the chamber, an odd flickering light at the tip of his wand. Though the location provided a still image, Sissel was actually pausing the memory until everyone was ready. "Anyone have any questions before we begin? If not, can you answer one: what kind of chambers were often found in Egyptian tombs?"