Chapter 3 - First day of lessons continues

At lunch, Ash turned to Professor McGonagall as promised, who in turn reprimanded him until he called her Minerva. It was easy to convince her to work out a solution for Harry's broom as soon as possible, seeing as how much Minerva liked Quidditch.

The other professors asked him about his experience in the first lesson which he gladly shared to the smiles of everyone but Snape.

As most of his colleagues rarely ever left Magical Britain, the rest of the lunch eventually turned into Ash talking about his adventure after his graduation. He talked about his visit to Magical Japan, which especially caught the attention of Pomona, Hagrid and Professor Flitwick - or rather Filius as he asked to be called, who kept asking about the flora, the fauna and unique methods of spell casting in Japan.

Interrupted by the bell, the discussion was cut short as the professors, delighted by their animated exchange during lunch, went back towards their classes.

Ash himself turned into his animagus form once nobody looked to the back of the hall behind the staff table and followed behind his patronus that was ready to pick up the 4th years.

This class went much like the one before lunch and and as it was a double lesson he gave an overview of what they will learn in potions class at the end. The students were shocked to find that they would actually discuss how ingredients reacted to each other and how changes to the recipe would affect the resulting potion.

Sure, his books that were part of the required book list talked about this to some degree, but the concept of learning such an advanced and usually sensitive topic from a Potion Master still excited the Ravenclaws and Slytherins in this class, even though the Slytherins did try not show it as much.

After all, such knowledge was hoarded by old pureblood families and potion masters here in Britain, at most the idea that such knowledge exists was discussed in the open.

"This topic is much broader than we can cover in just one lesson of course. In the upcoming practical lessons you are required to follow the recipe as stated in the book - however! I greatly encourage you to think about all the steps, all the measurements and the method of preparing and adding the ingredients."

Ash took in the thoughtful looks on the students' faces. "Additionally, there will only be three kinds of homeworks in my class ever. I will announce which potions will be worked on in our next practical lesson and when I do, homework type number one will be you guys getting familiar with the recipe before class. Optional for this, I will accept written answers from you about the workings of this potion, where you will put into words why the recipe works like it does."

A few faces lit up at this and Ash took it all in. He was sure a good amount of them lit up at the word optional. "To simply brew a potion and even brew it well, this is of course not necessary so I say it is optional. The needed thinking and knowledge is not required to get an EE or even O in your potion O.W.L.s next year, but I can ensure you that thinking about why a recipe works as it does will make your brewing easier and give you better results. I will look through your answers during your brewing and give feedback to you as needed before the end of the lesson or come back to you when next we see each other."

"What's the other two types of homework Professor?" Ash looked towards the studious Ravenclaw and answered with a smile. "Yes Eddie, I was getting to that. The second type of homework is voluntary as well. As I don't want you to blow up the class room or yourself, I want you to work on the recipe as it is in the book. But potions is an evolving discipline, so I will welcome you all to try and improve the recipes - which is where the second type of homework comes into play."

Ash stepped around his workstation, away from the black board and closer to his students. "This homework is an open invitation where you may discuss your ideas. You may hand in your ideas for improvements and I will give you a written feedback. However, I will never steal your ideas and publish them as my own, and if my word is not enough, you may ask of me an oath. Of course an oath is not taken lightly so you will have to convince me that your idea warrants such an action."

This time instead of an interruption a Slytherin, who to his knowledge never attended the Exchange Hall, raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Woodwart?" "Professor Ash, other than sharing our ideas for free, what other benifit would this give us?"

Ash had to arrange his thoughts for a moment so that he would explain it exactly as he meant it. "Good question Miss Woodwart. First, like I said you will only share it with me out of your own will and while you might give me an inspiration 'for free', the possible achievement in the field of potions will always stay yours. If needed and wanted, I will even use my influence to help you announce those achievement to the potioneering community. A great way to gain connections."

"The second point is that potion ingredients are expensive and brewing takes time. Sure, you could try all your ideas if you have the money and you would learn from your mistakes, but that is not true for everybody. More often than not, I will probably be able to judge if your suggested changes to the potion are feasible and those suggestions worthy of it, I will brew personally to test out what the effect will be. Now that I think about it, it could even become a regular thing for the Exchange Hall. If the student who submitted the idea is fine with it, they may assist or even brew the potion as stated in your idea yourself under my guidance."

Most students were excited at the prospect of becoming famous with an idea, though a few acknowledged their limitations and smiled wrily. "Now don't get me wrong everybody. I am not infallible and you all are not required to always listen to me and my judgement. If you have an idea and want to brew it yourself without telling me or if I tell you the idea will not work and you try it anyway - I cannot stop you, nor do I want to. Making mistakes is part of the process of learning and there's always a chance you discover something new, a reaction of 2 ingredients noone knew about for example."

Ash looked thoughtful before he continued with an appropriate anectode he learned from one of his masters. "Did you know that Britters' Barrel-belly potion was discovered by accident because a shelf was knocked over? Of course the potion serves no practical purpose unless you want to look like a barrel with limbs for an hour, but before the discovery of that potion, nobody knew that you could mix lava worm mucus with the stems of the Floating Manacle flower. It was an established fact, that added together it would always burn through the cauldron after one turn of the ladle. But through Britters' accident we learned you could reduce the heat of these two ingredients' reactions if an earth attributed ingredient is mixed into the cauldron before the stems go in."

Some students took notes and Ash hoped it was for the information about what they learned from the accident and not for more information on Britters' Barrel-belly potion.

"Okay, back to the homework. The third type I'm afraid is nothing as exciting. Sometimes I will ask of you to research ingredients and brewing methods. Not to worry though, I will explain to you beforehand what the purpose is for the research so you will not be discouraged before even starting."

"Alright, any other questions? - Yes Cho?" "Uhm, sorry Professor this has nothing to do with potions, but I heard a rumor in the common room that you have a tail feather of a legendary three legged sun crow. My parents told me legends about that bird. Could you show it to us?"

Glad that it wasn't too personal, a little irked it wasn't about class, Ash still showed off the feather to the students with pride. It was after all a very nice feather that had the aura of the warmth of the sun.

It was truly a fitting gift for someone nicknamed "Vial of Sunshine".

And so his double lesson with the forth years was over and after a short break, the first year Slytherins and Gryffindors were lead into the class room by his Patronus as the last class before dinner.

The lesson went much like his other classes today, though he kept the examples and explanations a little simpler. He also explained some elementary knowledge the older students should already know about like the difference the cauldron material can make during brewing.

Eventually though, at the end of the lesson, he asked the first years something that was dear to his heart.

"Okay class, the lesson is almost over. In our next lesson I will introduce two different techniques at the cauldron while brewing and three different techniques to "cut" a plant based ingredient while you follow me along with vegetables. There are of course many more techniques to go over, but it should explain the difference between the next two potions we will brew afterwards during the school year. Now I have one more question for all of you, especially those raised in the non-magical world."

Seeing the sudden indiffirence and sometimes even disdain on the majority of the Slytherin first years didn't sit well with Ash, but for the moment he brushed it off. No argument he could make right now, would negate 11 years of family influence and half a year of silent reinforcement of their beliefs in house Slytherin. Even if the safety glasses were a good start to shake that belief.

"In my sixth and seventh year at Hogwarts, so the last two school years, I took it upon myself to make the transition for those raised in the non-magical side into our magical world easier. I offered voluntary classes for wizarding common sense, helped in creating study groups of different houses and different 'births' and I invited all the first years to the Exchange Hall personally, so nobody would feel left out. Has anything like that happened for you at the start of the school year?"

A shy first year Gryffindor raised his hand. "Yes Mr Owens?"

"Um, a third year called Hermione helped us in the common room at the start, but um..." The boy was apparently not sure he should continue. "No worries, just speak your thoughts Mr Owens. There will be no troubles coming to you if you speak the truth."

"Um, she gave a short explanation and she-she... gave us a list of 23 interesting books we should read for further information... she got, um, she got mad that we didn't read them all two weeks later, so she got frustrated with us and stopped..." the young Gryffindor looked aggrieved at the end and even his eyes turned a little wet so he turned down his head dejectedly.

"I see, that certainly sounds like our Hermione. No worries though. Are you still interested in learning some common sense of the wizaring world?" The boy along with all his other Gryffindors that were not raised in the wizarding world looked excited immediately. "Your looks tell me yes, so how about this; this Saturday after breakfast I invite all of you who are interested to this class room and I will ask the other first years raised in the non-magical side from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tomorrow to come along as well."

Ash received excited nods and shone a bright smile, until he called for the Slytherin girl who raised his hands to speak. "Professor, why do you call it non-magical instead of muggleborn or muggleraised?"

"Hmm, good question Miss Greengrass, take 3 points for Slytherin," Ash exclaimed and gave out the points just to give other Slyhterins reason to ask questions critical to their world view. "It is something I had to purposefully think about. Calling 'muggles' not muggles but instead non-magicals or no-majs like the Americans is what I arrived at after conscious thought. Words have power, even unconsciously they affect how we think about things."

Ash knew he would not earn friends with his next words among most Slytherin students, and might even make a few enemies, if word for word of his speech reached certain parents, but he said them anyway.

"Thanks to the efforts of our passive, frightened, and isolationist society in Magical Britain, those from the non-magical world are perceived as lesser. Extremist blood-purists, who despise everything that isn't a pureblood, to me sadly, have a lot of power and are shaping our views of the world, even if not openly. It happens slowly over the years and, make no mistake, has a big impact on all of us. Thankfully, using words like 'mudblood' has become frowned upon out in the open, but I personally believe the way we say the word 'muggle' makes them sound like they are lesser, too."

Ash took a deep breath and continued, "I believe we are all human, just that we are magical humans and they are non-magical humans. But still human. I say it like this because to me, the words are just a fact, they don't judge, they don't make it sound like their lives are worth less than mine."

Two Slytherin boys scoffed, but they smartly remained quiet among the thoughtful looks of their peers. 'A good haul,' thought Ash. 'Last year a few Slytherin's forgot I could deduct house points and dish out detention as Head Boy and openly called the non-magical wizard and witches mudbloods in front of my face.'

And so with a few closing words, he ushered out the first years and upon request to see the 'cool glowing crow' again, led them to their common rooms to rest with the patronus charm before dinner in an hour.

At dinner, he once again told his colleagues about Magical Japan, took in the grateful nod from Harry, who apparently already spoke to Minerva about his broom, and then Ash spoke a little of his first classes again.

During the conversation, Ash brought up his introductory lessons and Minerva was embarrassed and admitted to the fact that his voluntary classes for the non-magicals wasn't picked up by anyone and was grateful he would remedy the fact immediately this weekend.

She even offered help along with Bathsheba whose parents were both first generation magicals and therefore made Bathsheba conscious of the differences of the magical and non-magical world.

After dinner Ash excused himself to his office, went over his lesson plan once again and eventually celebrated his first day of teaching with an early sleep.

It was an exhausting day.