Sebastian stifled a yawn as he opened the doors to his class. He had only just finished his breakfast before coming down to check on the room, It was mostly clean now. He knew he would still be cleaning for a few more days however to bring it up to where he wanted it. But he had gotten here late due to a storm and had not been able to clean before the feast. So he was slightly behind. But he had managed to remove the heaviest of what he felt was excessive grime. And had been able to revamp and even expand the cupboards for the student and himself to bring in even more ingredients.


He removed the last of the  jars of pickled animals that as far as he could tell were there since his own time as a student "You would think they would have at least dusted them!" he said to him self as he put the  last jar into a crate for the house elves to take out. He placed a set of clean jars of growing herbs, and new animal parts pickling behind colorful but opaque glass. Looking around he sighed at the room but decided he would clean it more after class, it was time. With a flick of his wand the doors to the class opened and he walked out into the hall. "Students, find a seat. Get your books out and quill and parchment as well. Time to see what you know and retained from the last professor." He smiled at them all and walked back into the room taking a seat behind his desk as they hustled in to the class. This was his first class as Potions Master here but he had been teaching far harder students that second years for the past few years. He had been teaching adults who he thought were far harder as they wouldn't admit to obvious mistakes as easy and blamed something else all the time.

Akira slipped in, then rushed to take a nice seat near the middle so that she could hear well but wouldn't draw too much attention from the Professor if all went wrong for her. Taking out her book first to set it just right in place to the side before she retrieved her other equipment, the little cauldron, the scales, and the phials. Of course there is no way to know if they were being taught how to brew this lesson, after all it was the first lesson of the term. But she didn't like to be unprepared for one of her favorite subjects.  Although even though in the lesson that didn't mean she can't continue like she would, a hand sneaked into her bag that then retrieved a marshmallow, it popped into her mouth and she ate it happily.

With the essentials done, now she opened her book to look through the pages, although she already reached halfway through she found some subjects such as transfiguration more interesting to read outside of lessons, mainly due to the fact that it required equations and you could practice it outside of the school even if underage as the equations are always something you can work on. Meanwhile potions was restricted to inside the school. However this did mean she was kept looking forwards towards doing the practical once at Hogwarts as for her its literally something you cannot do anywhere else. And that alone was enough to get her excited. Stopping her flicking through she looked up realizing its probably not the best time to get lost in the book when its the first day and a new teacher at that.

Harri entered the Potions Dungeons as they were called into the classroom. Her school robes hung a little loose around her slightly taller frame, though her sleeves had been rolled up to her elbows. Her beloved Man U knitted cap sat over her short and shaggy brown hair. With a bit of dirt under her nails and a bruise on her elbow, a scrape under her eye, she looked just like any of the other boys in Gryffindor.

She took a seat and pulled out her book, quill and parchment. Then she spoke up without really thinking, "So if yer here does that mean teachin in this school really is cursed? No one seems ta teach longer than a few months anymore." She had heard from some of the older students that Storm had cursed the school when he came. He was the longest running Professor and everyone else only lasted a few months, a year at the most. Having only been at the school for a year herself  (and having seen teachers come and go) she was like to believe them.

Sebastian looked at Harri with mock shock on his face "Curse! Oh dear! I best get all of the tests out right away lest I fail to grade you all before it is too late!" He laughed with the other students and went over to her. "No Miss Dursley, I doubt it is cursed, It seems every so often we hear such rumors about one class or the other, and yes even the whole school. You have to remember that Professors are people, we have lives and things outside of the school. sometimes those things become more important. Or something else happens and them have to move on."

He walked about the classroom, looking over shoulders at students. "I do think however we do need a quiz, just  see what you all remembered from last year. I want you all to tell me how to make the Cure for Boils, Forgetfulness, and the Wideye Potion. All of theses should have bee studied last year. Parchments out and begin!" He said and started walking the rows watching students.

Harri had laughed along with the other students when the new Professor reacted to her inquiry. It was nice to have a Professor that had a good sense of humor. Especially on one of her favourite subjects. Who didn't like potions? As a muggleborn it was one of the bigger draws to being a wizard for her. She liked hands on magic, it felt more involved and real than waving her wand and having something across the room blow up.

Her expression fell however and she visibly bristled. Her wand, which she had been fiddling with while waiting for class to start let off a small spark. She set her jaw and added, "Ain't no Miss. It's jus Harri." She glanced over to her fellow Gryffindor Harrison Bagnold who had started going by Harry as well. The last thing she wanted was to be known as the girl Harry, "Actually jus call me Dursley." She looked down at her parchment gripping her quill and dipping it in ink before adding under her breath, "never miss."

Sebastian turned back to Harri, and nodded. "I only use that term as a sign of respect but if you insist I will call you only by your last name" He walked through the students tables. reading over a shoulder here and even pointing out a mistake politely is whisper tones to a Hufflepuff. "Once you have written everything down place roll your parchment up and set them at the edge of the table to be collected" He walked back to the head of the class and waited for them all to finish.

Akira smiled a little bit at the comment of the curse by Harri, she listened to the reply by the Teacher and grimaced at the thought of a load of tests immediately, even if he wasn't serious. The horror at such a thing occurring. What even happened to those who failed the end of year tests? Did you get put back a year? Have to do summer classes? It didn't seem that bad but then the other things that could happen. What if you were killed, or worse. Expelled? Akira shook her head at the thought of being expelled, at least she had her priorities straight.

She set out on her task as given, writing down what she learned over the previous year in Potions, this potion required this much time, this one required this plant. And of course that one didn't need that thing whatever it was. Once finished with her writing she folded the parchment and left it as told. Setting her quill down, if there was one thing she liked about muggle life more. It was having pens. Or better yet not having to write and using a computer. She believed she did a good job with with the test and so decided to treat herself with another marshmallow.

Harri's agitation dissipated as the Professor spoke again. She was surprised at how easily he had acquiesced to her request. She had met with so much resistance in the past. It had gotten to the point where her father had stopped introducing her as his daughter so that they could avoid the whole situation. The older generation seemed to have a tough time dealing with these sorts of situations. Even some of the Professors at Hogwarts had found it difficult.

She gave him a small roguish smile, "Thank you Professor." She added softly before bending her head, grabbing her quill and setting to work.

Her summer had been an active one. She had delighted in making up stories for her muggle friends about the fancy private school she now attended and she got to spend some time with her cousin Harry and his family, along with a sleepover or two with Teddy. With all of that, the last thing on her mind had been her lessons. Which meant she was having quite the difficult time trying to remember what she needed to write down.

Eventually it came to her, or at least most of it did. She decided to fill in the blanks with anything that sounded right before rolling up her parchment and placing it to the side of her desk. She took up her wand again and fiddled with it. She couldn't help herself. She knew that potions was mostly a wandless subject but after having spent her whole summer not being allowed to use it, she took every opportunity she could to hold onto it.

Sebastian collected the parchments with a flick of his wand. he looked over at  Akira and flicked his wand again, a single marshmallow flew to him  from her bag. He had it floating above his wand without touching it and smiled at her. "No eating in potion class. I have to enforce that because all it would take is for some dangerous ingredient to fall onto one and you will end up in the hospital wing. If I don't have to say it again I will not take you bag of these." He flicked his wand and the marshmallow returned to her bag.

He looked over the parchments and made a few notes on some of them and returned them to each student. ":I have made notes on a few mistakes some of you made, but over all well done." He didn't call out anyone's mistakes to the rest, he simply noted what they had wrong on the scroll. "Now that I know a little better what we can do, I think a simple potion to warm us up, and that will be to work on a simple sleeping draught."

He pointed his wand at the board and and the ingredients appeared.


He looked at the class. "Books out, and go to the sleeping draught chapter. Now we are using this version but there are variants of this potions that cause the same effect. However it also has a dangerous stronger version. Class who can tell me what that potion is and how it varies from our simple potion?" He looked about the room and pointed at a hand raised.

Akira stared at the Marshmallow floating about and hmphed, she pushed them down her bag and then proceeded to organize her ingredients, focusing on making the potion correct she didn't notice that the teacher was waiting for answers. A Sprig was...like this right? Just the whole thing stem and all? And a blob, how large was that? Ew, its all sticky and disgusting! I never want to see a Flobberworm in real life. 4 Valerian sprigs...like Valerian steel? Can you get metal flowers? Can I make a sword out of flowers?

Pondering this new joyous thought of cutting down people with flowers, she shook her head and looked at her potion again. Right, focus. How much was a measure? Did we have to measure...oh it says in the book how much to measure! Right. So that should be..should I be putting it in as I sort this out? What does the book say? OH A PASTE! Yes I knew that. Of course. Her face constantly changed from I got it! To what is this? And then to did this go right? Should this be like flubber?

Atleast it hadn't blown up yet. That was a good sign right? Or is it meant to blow up? Oh no, what if it was meant to catch fire! Oh...good it wasn't. She thinks.

Harri unrolled her parchment and looked over the red marks made in the margins. To be honest it was a lot less than she had anticipated. Either she was really good at making things up or she had actually retained more information than she thought the had. She tried to make note of the mistakes she had made before slipping the parchment back in her bag and pulling out her textbook.

Harri opened her text to the page indicated before rising from her seat and walking over to the store cupboard. She glanced between the board and the cupboard as she filled her arms with everything she needed to make the potion. She loved collecting and preparing ingredients. While it Wasn't as cool as using her wand there was something extra magical about turning simple ingredients like twigs and bogeys into honest to goodness magical potions.

She placed them out at her desk in front of her cauldron and started to prepare them. At the Professors question she raised her hand, "The stronger version is caught Draught of the Sleeping dead. It's wicked powerful and really hard to brew. I heard about a kid here, during the war, that put himself in a coma after making it wrong."[1]

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[1] - Cillian  Cuthbert

Sebastian looked at Harri. "That is one of the most common ways the potion in question is misnamed Dursley. The correct name is Draught of Living Death. But you were very close. Five points  to Gryffindor." He walked around the room, looking into cauldrons and watching people work. He took a moment at Akira's table to lean in close a whisper just loud enough for her to hear. "You are doing fine, but I can see you are getting flustered. Take a moment if you need to reread over the potion before moving forward, and don't be afriad to ask for help form me if you aren't sure. I rather you ask and not need help after all than to not ask and make a mistake that makes us have to start over on a potion."

 He moved away and looked about the room. "The sleeping draught is a simple sleeping potion, but is is also a weak potion. Be cause of this it is safe to use on several creatures, however the dosage changes for them. A potion make strong enough to knock out a troll, can be split and knock out about a dozen people. but a Dragon dosage will knock out a lot more. The problem is that unless the person was already tired it will not keep them out for long, a well made potion can knock out a grown man or woman wide awake for about two hours. I will be making this potion as well, I  want you all to focus on what you are doing and if you have any questions or feel you made a mistake, please raise a hand and I will assist. I want to see how well you make potions though so I expect you to be able to follow the instructions in the book with out me needing to explain the steps one at a time." 

Sebastian went to his desk and started working on his own potion. His hands moved with a percussion of a surgeon as he began mixing his ingredients into his own cauldron.

Akira looked up at the Professor as he came over and nodded, not really wanting the help as she has this under control. She thinks. Does she? Probably. Yes she does. Of course she does. She took the paste mixture and then....what was next? She looked at her book, then at the paste, then the book. Oh that doesn't come in until later. Of course it didn't! She knew that, of course, she was a potions genius! Probably not, but if she was! No, she kept pushing that out of her head. She is the person who struggles to put Flobberworm Mucus into her cauldron as its disgusting.

She put in the Flobberworm Mucus, then the next set of standard ingredient. Yes! She had it now! Now heat for 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi...Do Flobberworms flobber or flubber about? What if they just crawl? Could they indeed flobber if a flobberworm wanted to flobber or would the flobberworm flubber? Oh right the timing! She added the crushed mixture in pretty sure she got it right, how could she not? Right?...Then you wave your wand? How do you wave it? Do you wave it hello do you just wave it over? She's pretty sure, no definitely sure it was taught last year, however it had been several months...so she just casually moved it over the cauldron with a little flick to make the cauldron know who's boss! Now what is next to....oh. Time to watch the Professor as she had to wait now

Harri listened to the Professor's correction and scribbled something in a piece of Parchment she had tucked inside her textbook. She had been scolded for writing in the margins of her text last year and had since adopted the habit of slipping parchment in so she could still make notes. She was surprised she still managed to score house points and let a smile curl her lips. She supposed the slip up hadn't been too bad and she was still mostly right. Still, she was thankful for a Professor that still rewarded mostly right answers.

She started to make her potion, following the instructions in her text. She paused as the Professor spoke and marked down on her parchment the bits about dosages and splitting them amongst people. Once done she stopped and stared at Darkfall as he began making his own potion. How cool was that? It didn't take long before he started climbing to the top of her favourite Professors lost. He was definitely more likable than the cold, strict red head they had last year.

She turned her attention back to her potion. She couldn't tell you the magical properties of all the ingredients and she likely couldn't identify them if they weren't labelled. However she could follow instructions and so her potion was progressing rather well. Any time she had down time - time when she didn't need to be actively doing anything - she watched Darkfall work. She was transfixed by how effortlessly he moved, creating his potion as if it were something he did every day. Then again it likely was.