Severus skimmed through his revised lesson plan for today's fifth-year Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff class one last time. It still looked half-baked to him, despite the fact the language he would be using for most of the lecture was abstracted directly from his usual first- and second-year potions theory revision curriculum. It would have to do. At least he could count on the Raven and Badger prefects to give him useful feedback on the lesson if he asked for it, before he rolled it out to the rest of the upper-years later this week. He inhaled, pointed his wand at the door, and unlocked it.
He watched silently as the twenty or so students filed in, ticking their names off on the attendance book. They had all survived the Christmas holidays. Huzzah.
He stood up as soon as the class were all seated and waived his wand to distribute the graded midterm exams. The muttering died instantly. There was a reason he chose this particular group for the experimental lesson.
"Do not attempt to review your entire examination until the end of class. Most of you will have noticed a lower score than you might have previously expected based on quizzes and homework. The reasons for this will become clear if you will turn to page six of the exam, and open chapter two of Magical Drafts and Potions." The class dutifully flipped through to the back of the test, and to the front of their introductory-level textbooks. Severus waited less than a minute for the faster readers amongst them to realize all the answers to this part of the test would be found in the first two chapters of their books. As soon as he saw the first winces on the Ravenclaw faces, he continued, "It came to my attention towards the end of term that I have done you a disservice as your potions master. The questions on this page relate to potions theory rather than practice. This is a subject I would have expected all of you to be perfectly proficient in by now... had I been your teacher during your first and second years at this school. Alas, my predecessor felt theory could be adequately remediated later in the curriculum. As your own O.W.L.s are fast approaching...we will see if he is correct.
He assumed a more typical lecture tone. "Now, potions are predictable! You may have been merely memorizing 'recipes' for the past few years, much to my chagrin, but that is no more the art of potion-making than it is the art of ordinary cooking. We will be reviewing the magical theory of potioneering for the next few weeks. An adequate understanding of these principles allows one to recognize what has gone wrong during a brewing process and determine how to correct it, without the separate instructions I have historically provided you as needed. A poor understanding of these principles is dangerous, either through the production of dangerous reactions during the brewing process or unintentionally dangerous final substances, which you have all of course frequently observed or even produced in this classroom." He paused and offered a slight smile. "A thorough understanding of these principles allows for experimentation with and the invention of completely new potions - safely."
He pointed his wand at the blackboard, and words instantly appeared. "The five theoretical pillars of potioneering are: essence identification, extraction, modification, combination, catalysis, and energization." That had been a question on the test, and only six out of ten Ravenclaw students had listed all five correctly. "Identification involves recognizing both the primary and all the secondary properties of your ingredients, both magical and chemical. Extraction in potioneering means isolating only the desired properties through ingredient preparation, which may be as simple as peeling, slicing, and dicing, or as complicated as a multi-step infusion and distillation. Modifications include chemical reactions such as oxidation and crystallization and certain enchantments. Combination, catalysis, and energization must all be considered in devising the process that brings the disparate essences into one cohesive product that is not merely a disgusting and impotent soup." He paused for a breath. "I am not going to stand here and read your textbook to you. I am not even going to stand here and paraphrase your textbook to you whilst providing snide commentary on its oversimplifications." One of the Hufflepuff boys snickered at that, but Severus ignored him. "Instead, you have an in-class assignment for this two-hour session." More words appeared on the board, this time a short list of ingredients: Lethe River water, valerian sprigs, mistletoe berries, and Standard Ingredient Buffer solution. There were no measures or other instructions. "What potion are we studying today?"
Every single hand in the class shot up. He called on one randomly. "Forgetfulness solution, sir."
"Correct. In what year did you learn this potion?"
The student blushed, unaccountably. "Er... first year."
"Also correct. The potions you all learned in your first years at Hogwarts are chosen because they are simple, without overly many steps or overly dangerous ingredients. They are relatively forgiving of beginner blunders. They are good examples for you to learn the manual skills of a potioneer as well as attention to process and detail. They all function on the same theoretical principles underlying more complex potions, however. I will tell you, there is exactly one way to combine these ingredients, and only these four ingredients, in such a way as to cause the mixture to violently explode." The students' reactions to that revelation were mixed, from mere surprise, to alarm, to continued indifference. "Your task today is to figure out what it is." He cut across the few excited murmurs briskly. "You will not be completing this task through random trial and error. In fact, you will not be brewing the potion at all today. Instead, you will work in groups of two or three to determine the erroneous process theoretically. I want each group to have at least one person from Ravenclaw and one from Hufflepuff. Those who reach the correct answer will earn five House Points each. The one with the most well-reasoned explanation will have the pleasure of assisting me with a small demonstration at the end of class." He flicked his wand again to send the prepared worksheets to all the desks. "Your main resource is of course chapters 1-3 of your textbook. I am the other. If you find the concepts confusing, I encourage you to ask questions. It may be others in the class are wondering the same thing. Particularly good questions may be worth additional points. You have one hour, after which we will discuss each group's response with the class... You may proceed."
The students divided up quickly and amicably, not that he had expected anything else from this assembly. The Slytherin-Gryffindor class was going to be the problem from that aspect. He was not so interested in fostering inter-house cooperation as fostering good discussion, which worked better when not in cognitive echo-chambers. The first quarter hour went quietly, with much quill-scratching, page-turning, and whispered arguments. Severus worked on first-year curricular revision some more while he waited. A Ravenclaw girl, Judith Pertwee was the first to raise her hand.
"Ms. Pertwee."
"Sir, in the section on essence identification, the book says that many properties in potion-making may be inferred from either the name or from the physical properties of the original organism, like aconite also being called wolfsbane and therefore used in the wolfsbane potion, or the same plant looking like a monk's hood and therefore being used in potions to help medieval monks wake up for really early morning prayers...but isn't that reasoning apocryphal? No one nowadays would say the flowers look like monks' hoods, but the Wideye potion still works, and I think I remember reading an ancient Chinese variation of the potion too, where clothing would have been entirely different."
"Excellent question. Two points to Ravenclaw. Yes, the reasoning is circular. The Germanic wolfsbane name for aconite, which itself originated as the Greek word for the same concept, came about precisely because the plant was observed to have unusual effects on even ordinary wolves. Similarly, the stimulatory properties were described before the origin of the English monkshood name. The book is correct insofar as names can be used as mnemonics to remember certain properties of your ingredients, because the names refer to those properties, not the other way around. As a matter of fact, the stimulatory properties have nothing to do with the flower morphology but with their color: the only species of aconite that actually works for the Wideye potion is the one with petals matching the blue of pre-dawn on the day they are picked. Substitutions will mostly produce poisons, which is the most important reason most of you should always purchase your aconite flowers at the apothecary in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, not the one in Knockturn. The good news is that even if Master Jigger's explanation of property determination is somewhat vague, his tables of properties at the end of your book are all perfectly accurate, if not 100% comprehensive. As are those in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Most of these properties can be experimentally elucidated with the simple Ingredient Quality Control solution, which is covered in chapter three."
He watched several Ravenclaws flip to that section of the book, and from their expressions could tell Slughorn had never had them brew that particular potion in class. Some may never have even read that section. It wasn't a necessary potion for most people to deal with routinely, since apothecaries all monitored their own stock before selling it, but it was... fundamental. And obviously one the students ignored when left to their own devices. No more questions were immediately forthcoming, so he started making notes himself, both on how this particular class was getting on with the lesson, and how he could improve the understanding in his other classes. He had already put the Ingredient Quality Control solution into the first year coursework when he first started teaching, but he could probably make it more interesting for the students if he had them test it on something like dandelions, whose properties changed dramatically with the maturity of the plants, stage of flowers, and the time of year collected.
By the end of the hour, he had doled out a dozen more points for probing questions, mostly to Ravenclaw but a few to Hufflepuff students. Only two groups figured out how to cause an explosion, since very specific minor errors had to accrue at virtually every step to get it perfectly, rightly wrong. Every group had come up with some kind of interesting effect, however, and the discussion was quite animated as to whether any of these hypothetical error-potions might actually be useful. The winning group Severus determined was the one that not only figured out how to cause the explosion but also identified the "point of no return" after which a useful potion could no longer be salvaged at all. It was part two, step three, after all the measuring had been done.
"Well done, Perkins, Burnett. That is, in fact, precisely the step where I arrested the brew this morning. If one of you feels up to the challenge of salvaging the potion before the end of class, you might earn another ten points. I'll let you decide amongst yourselves who should have that chance, and who shall have the honor of exploding the rest of it."
The two fifth years eyed each other, then Hufflepuff Melody Perkins leaned over to whisper something to Ravenclaw Adam Burnett, who grinned and nodded. "I'll try to save it, sir," Adam said.
Severus nodded. "Good luck. You may use my scales." He wasn't going to make it too easy for the boy by telling him up front how much potion there was; it was the ratios that were important, after all. He brought the cauldron and the mortar out of the cupboard behind his desk and divided both the simmered base solution and the remaining dry ingredients exactly in half, handing part to Adam and part to Melody. Adam immediately descended upon the scales with his half and then scribbled some calculations on a piece of parchment before heading off to the store cabinet. "Ms. Perkins, if you please," Severus drawled.
The Hufflepuff prefect grinned and picked up the mortar. "I still can't believe you're letting me make explosives in class intentionally, Professor," she said. She took two uneven pinches of powder from the mortar and dropped them into the cauldron, flicking her fingers in just such a way as to scatter half the powder on the sides of the cauldron rather than into the liquid ingredients. She took up a glass rod and stirred the potion anti-clockwise six times instead of five, and quite fast, so that when she abruptly stopped stirring with the rod braced against the bottom of the cauldron, the liquid sloshed along the sides unevenly. There was a bubbling sound and a waft of steam. She did not wave her wand next but rather fumbled it from one hand to the other and then flicked it against the side of the cauldron, at which point the entire contents suddenly vaporized. The resultant gas cloud ignited, loudly, brightly, and colorfully, but Severus contained the accompanying pressure wave with a quick "Protego Totallum" before it could do more than knock some papers off the front row of desks.
The class offered some gratifying gasps and short applause. Severus pointed his wand at the contained gas. "Evanesco." It vanished. "If ever any of you do wish to enter the field of experimental potion-making, those two spells will be your best friends, to contain and then vanish unexpectedly dangerous products. They are both covered in the Standard Book of Spells Grade Five, I believe. Thank you, Ms. Perkins. You may return to your seat, and take two points for Hufflepuff for excellent dexterity. It's very difficult to fumble your wand like that intentionally. I expect to see similar proficiency at every class from now on." He slowly turned to look at Adam, who was still bent over the other cauldron. "How are you coming along?"
"I think I've got it, sir." The boy carefully added a few more grains from his own mortar. Severus held his breath and leaned over the cauldron to inspect it. It wasn't half bad. He straightened again.
"Proceed."
Adam was sweating slightly as he started to stir. Anti-clockwise. Twice, thrice... the potion suddenly boiled away. "Tut tut, Mr. Burnett. You would have succeeded if you had added a slow clockwise stir after the second anti-clockwise."
Adam's eyes were glazed over, but they quickly widened and he looked down at his notes. "I- I was going to, sir, and I forgot."
"Yes, because this is a Forgetfulness solution, and in your admirable attempt to fix it, you energized the Lethe river water beyond what is normally called for at this stage. The clockwise stir would have toned it down...but I believe you inhaled some of the vapor."
"Oh... bollocks."
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Homework today... same exercise. Two feet of parchment. You may pick the basic potion and off-label effect of your choice. Figure out how to produce the effect and describe your reasoning. If there are multiple ways to produce the same effect, I want at least two of them. You may also defend why an effect is impossible if you so choose. Bonus points will be awarded for picking a unique combination, for devising accurate corrective procedures, and for commentary on how to safely contain damage." A sudden new idea occurred to him, and he added "Also for identification and suggestions for mitigation of process hazards, such as the risk of inhaling Forgetfulness solution as Mr. Burnett kindly demonstrated." He waited a moment as the class copied down the assignment. "Class dismissed. Prefects please stay a moment."
The class broke apart more slowly than usual, as the bell had yet to ring, but they seemed animated rather than put down by the lesson, so that was good. Severus shuffled his notes until the door closed, then looked up at the four lingering prefects, Melody Perkins, Harper Hooper, Doris Zhou, and Paul Harris. He took a deep breath. "I am endeavoring to adjust my curriculum to better meet the students' needs. Today's class was the first attempt, and I would appreciate your honest opinions on how it went."
The four glanced at eachother, clearly surprised. Melody was the first to speak. "Well, sir, I thought it was great." The other three smiled and nodded.
Severus waited a moment, then rolled his eyes. "Thank you for that, however I was hoping for something more specific. Was it effective? Was it interesting? Was it a better or worse use of class time than our usual sessions? Or was it too disorganized? Too complicated?"
Understanding bloomed in their faces. Doris furrowed her brow for a moment, then slowly answered, "I think this was a good exercise for our level, sir. It was a puzzle, but one we knew enough already to figure out in the time provided. If you'd picked a harder potion for the day, it would have been too difficult, even for Ravens. And, well, you're really organized, sir, more than Slughorn was, I think."
"I agree. It was interesting," Harper said. "I never think about potions like we did today. I just concentrate on following the instructions as carefully as possible. Any time you've made me write up a correction for homework after a bad gaffe, I've always had to spend hours in the library looking up potion variations. I've never tried to figure it out just from basic principles and the properties tables before. I'm actually sort of looking forward to doing the homework," he admitted, "even though I'll probably get a 'D' again..."
"Don't sell yourself short," Melody told him encouragingly. Then she frowned. "Professor, is this the same exercise you have the younger years do, too? I really can't imagine doing the whole thing as a first or second year. Are we that far behind where we should be?"
"Not quite. The material is spread over the entire year in my current first-year curriculum, mixed in with the manual skills exercises," Severus explained. "And no, your classes are not 'behind' per se, or no one would have found the solution today. You all have adequate practical experience with potion making that you should all be able to get 'Acceptables' this year. What is lacking is not breadth of knowledge but depth. I want your O.W.L. scores to be based on real understanding of the material, not just rote memorization. Outstandings, not Acceptables." He gestured vaguely. "I know potions are frustrating for a lot of you, even if I don't particularly sympathize with that frustration. I do assign similar exercises to the lower years at times, but my results are mixed depending on student enthusiasm more than anything else. If any of you have ideas on how you would have liked to engage with this material earlier in your training, I'm open to suggestions there as well." He smirked. "I'm also open to suggestions on how to amend the exercise for the Gryffindor-Slytherin sessions."
The four students tittered, but Harper said, "I don't think you should change it. Make them work together like we did. The arguing might even lead to a better understanding of the topic than friendly discussion."
"Ah, the art of the Dialectic," Paul commented with a snigger. Doris giggled.
"What?" Melody asked.
"Socrates," Paul explained, "loved to provoke arguments in order to get his students to actually understand philosophy."
"He was a berk about it, though, and was executed for it," Severus pointed out. "Poisoned." He grinned at Harper's startled look. The muggleborn apparently hadn't expected him to know any ancient muggle history. "You'll learn the antidote in March."
Author's Note: Snape's brilliant at potions. Would have been so nice for everyone if he had ever figured out how to communicate that brilliance more effectively. I quite like in the books every time one of his practical exams come along and it's something like the Forgetfulness Solution where the work itself is sabotaging the students. In canon, that's because Snape is a jerk. In this version, that's because safe handling is part of the test, he just failed to point that out to his students until today, because to him that was blindingly obvious. And so, step one of not being a horrible teacher commences.
Thank you for the reviews, as always. Updates will continue to be Friday and Sunday.