No Foolish Wandwaving- A Potions Tutoring Session

[Laelia Lule]

Laelia checked her bag again to make sure that she had everything she needed to tutor Oliver. He really needed some help in potions. Rather than start at the nature of potion ingredients , she thought that pressing the fundamental processes would be better.

She had her potions textbook, a quill and some parchment. The library was a quiet place for a tutoring session, and she walked in, past the doors and decided to wait near the librarian's desk. Hopefully, Oliver would be there soon since it was fairly early.

[Oliver Hughes]

Oliver had completely forgotten that he'd offered to meet Laelia in the Library to go over his Potions stuff. He had slunked out of bed late and with one look at his watch, he remembered. He slipped his clothes on quickly and ran down to the Library, almost forgetting his books. The fourth year girls in the Hufflepuff common room laughed at him as he blundered past them and through the portrait hole.

He nearly ran into one of the Professors and he ran in to the quiet Library. He took in deep gasps of breath while he looked around for Laelia.

"S-s-sorry," He managed to get out between breathes. He hadn't bothered to do anything about his hair, which was in a crazy tousled mess. " I-I-I f-forgot." With that he sat down at one of the tables with a large clunk. All of the readers near him frowned and one Ravenclaw fifth year gave him an irritating "Shhh!"

[Laelia Lule]

Laelia took her seat near Oliver, and glared at the miscreants irritating the Hufflepuff. "Try to make it sure it does not happen again, Oliver," she said addressing her student.

She reached into her bag, and took her Potions textbook out and placed on the library table. "We have a long tutoring session ahead of us," she said glancing at the other occupants of the table. Perhaps, they could take a hint and move and continue their lounging about elsewhere.

"We have a hour long session now, so let's not waste time, and get started right away," she said.

[Oliver Hughes]

Oliver pulled out his books slowly and yawned loudly. He pulled out his notes, which were covered in doodles and he sat back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

"What are we working on, teach?" He asked casually, looking at Laelia.

[Laelia Lule]

Laelia rolled her eyes at Oliver's casual pose. She had hoped he would appear to be serious about improving his Potions performance.

"I thought we should get started on the importance of timing and precision in Potions. Professor Mellor had mentioned it in the class and I know he went off on you but you need to learn how to change the way you do potions first," she said to Oliver.

She slid her potions textbook to the side of her slowly, and looking straight at him, said slowly, "It would do you no good to just learn about potions if you don't get the basics right."

[Oliver Hughes]

Looking around at the many books that lay about the table they were sitting at, Oliver looked for a Quidditch related book. He was already spacing out. He had his feet crossed underneath the table. In his head he was thinking of flying.

Once Laelia started to talk, Oliver focused on her words. He was really bored, but he earnestly wanted to at least improve his potion making skills.

"Right." Oliver said, trying to listen. "Timing. Precision. Yeah, that's what he said?" He was merely repeating what he heard. It was helping him focus. At one point he thought about writing it down, but then he knew that he would just start doodlig.

Why was this so hard? Oliver had to use all of his energy on focusing. He continued to agree with everything Laelia said, waiting for her to go on.

[Laelia Lule]

Laelia stared hard at Oliver, and paused her lecture. It would do him no good to fly off the broomstick handle so quickly, and said to him in a quelling tone of voice, "If you are just going to repeat what I say for verbatim, then there is no use in having a tutoring session right now."

Pausing, for a more dramatic effect and hoping some of it penetrated his dreamy skull, she continued, "Yes, timing and precision is important. Care to tell me why?"

His answer would help her realize what he knew and help him from there.

[Oliver Hughes]

Oliver shook his head and knew that he had to focus. He frowned as Laelia lectured him, he didn't like how she made him sound so stupid. He wasn't.

"Sorry, continue then," Oliver said, leaning forwards and putting his hand on his chin. "Well...umm...the importance of precision is...um...that one small thing can make the potion turn out wrong?" He asked it like a question, being unsure if he was right or not. He felt that chilling moment where she might repremand him for his childish behaviour.

He did like that Laelia was helping him, but Oliver really didn't like Potions, he wished they could be working on Defence Against the Dark Arts instead.

[Laelia Lule]

Strangely, Laelia was more patient tutoring Oliver than she would have been with some other random wizard, who would have received a far more severe tongue lashing.

She slowly nodded her head. So that was where he was stuck on precision and timing. She decided to continue her lecture, "Precisely, pardon the pun, many things can go wrong if both timing and precision are off." She sighed, "They can have deadly consequences, you know. Professor Mellor is stern and prone to tongue lashing but I feel he wanted to make sure that everyone paid attention to his lecture. Volatile ingredients can create dangerous effects like explosions that can maim or kill you."

"You are far more impatient in the class. You need to be more patient, careful and precise. You might not become a Master but at least competent in the subject."

Thinking on how to make him understand the subject better, she decided to use Quidditch. "Think of a Quidditch match," she said, "You need to win a series by 50 points, so the seeker holds off on catching the snitch until then. He is patient and willing to wait, and helps to impede his rival seeker."

[Oliver Hughes]

Oliver nodded when she mentioned that people could get hurt. Did this mean he'd gotten the question right? He was quite glad. He was beginning to focus more and Laelia seemed nice enough. Then she brought up Quidditch. If Oliver had been a dog at this moment his ears would've perked up and his tail would've started wagging.

"Right, so the seeker just has to flew around the top of the pitch, looking for the snitch, but listening to the score, so that he knows when to get it." This made sense to Oliver. So patience was key in Potions. He wrote this down, neatly on his paper, next to one of his doodles of the snitch.

"Thanks," He said to Laelia, smiling goofily. "The whole Quidditch thing really makes sense." He nodded, his blue eyes glowing. She had his full attention.

[Laelia Lule]

Laelia refrained from smirking. All it had taken was one Quidditch analogy and he was hanging out on her every word. She was quite happy that he was taking notes on her question.

Relaxing, she leaned back in her chair, and continued her lecture, "Same thing with precision. A chaser has to practice his quaffle throws till he is able to be accurate and score. You have to be careful in measuring ingredients. Practice using your scales and other measuring equipment."

Tilting an eyebrow, she stopped her lecture and asked, "Any questions so far?"

[Oliver Hughes]

It was as though someone had turned a lightbulb on in Oliver's dark head. IT made complete sense to him now. He knew how much practice he would need to obtain a good Potions score.

He nodded as Laelia continued to speak. He was really glad that she was so willing to help him out. He guessed that she was just nice like that. She was incredibly smart too, it was nice.

"Nope," Oliver responded, waiting for her to continue. "Thanks for your help, Laelia," he mentioned honestly. He ran his finger through his hair while waiting for her to continue.

[Laelia Lule]

If Laelia knew what Oliver was thinking about her, she would have preened in delight. She always enjoyed all sorts of compliments. It appeared it was getting easier to get through to him.

She nodded and continued speaking, "Good. I'm glad you're following easily now. That is all I have say about the subject. Just remember to keep practicing timing, measuring and precision. Stay calm in class and don't let Mellor make you nervous."

Taking her textbook in hand, she glanced at him and asked, "Do you want to review the last potion we did?"

[Oliver Hughes]

Oliver straightened up in his seat as Laelia continued to speak. He was almost impatient to continue. This was good. He was learning something. He wrote down some more notes before looking up at Laelia.

“Do you want to review the last Potion we did?” Oliver nodded vigorously. He had had a lot of difficulty with that particular Potion. The instructions had been incredibly confusing. He pulled out his own textbook. Then Oliver noticed that Laelia’s textbook was in much better condition than his. Oliver’s had notes and doodles all over it, but none of them were from him. They were all signed by past Hogwarts students.

“I found the potion from last class way too confusing.” Oliver stated. “The first one was easy to follow, but this one got to me.” He frowned a little as he opened his book to the forgetfulness potion. He know remembered and was wondering what mark he must have got on the Potion. It made him nervous to think of Professor Mellor’s sneering face. Oliver blocked Professor Mellor from his mind and focused on Laelia’s gray eyes.