and his fellow second years in the dungeon, nearly everyone seemed to have been enjoying themselves in every lesson they’d looked in on.
Straight after lunch the Moncero first years found themselves heading for Aquila House, together with the Leo first years, to visit their potions classroom, which was under the lake. Zak and Tallion both noticed that Shaul Malchus was arrogantly lagging behind the group by himself, and that the other Leos didn’t seem to involve him in their conversations.
Unlike when they’d visited Aquila House during the summer with Barty, this time they entered via a shortcut from the main corridor which took them directly to the Aquila classrooms without going near the common room and dorms. It seemed that potions and alchemy were both taught here, much like in Lofthouse Castle, and they would be studying both subjects under the lake.
Well, the Mhonarr Castle students would be studying under the lake, the two Lofthouse Castle students would be studying these subjects in their classrooms in Yorkshire.
A group of fifth years were in the middle of concocting some lurid green potion as they came into the first classroom, and their potions master, Professor Meltham, was berating a carelessly dressed boy about his poor ingredient preparation! The badly diced plimpet roots on the table in front of him vanished with a wave of the professor’s wand, and an un-diced version appeared in their place. The professor told the boy to start again, and then batted him over the head with a textbook he had in his hand.
The first years kept as quiet as mice as the textbook was slammed back down on the desk, and the irate professor glared first at the fifth year and then at the cowering first years who were watching. The fifth year was smirking as the professor turned back to the front of the class, and exchanged a few quiet words with his friends as he set to work dicing up his fresh plimpet root a bit more carefully this time. He looked familiar to Zak and Tallion, but they couldn’t work out why.
After watching the fifth years for a few minutes, which included witnessing a cauldron boiling over and the resultant pool of bright green liquid apparently chasing its squealing female creator round the classroom, they headed to the room next door. In it a group of fourth years were starting an alchemy experiment under the watchful eye of Madame Maxine Cheycoeur, the only French professor on the staff. It looked quite boring because all the fourth years were doing was assembling arrays of flasks and tubes following a design in their textbook.
“Ze alchemy is a slow process, we do nossing fast ‘ere, all slowly and carefully,” explained the professor, as much to the watching first years as to the smirking fourth years.
After a few minutes, the two groups of first years left the Alchemy class, and made their way to the Balayage pitch. All of the boys, and a good number of girls had been looking forward to this, and they were excited to find that three sixth year house teams were having a practise match in preparation for the inter-house tournament which was due to start on the first weekend in October.
Balayage was part of the Physical Activities curriculum, which for the first years included general fitness, learning to fly a broomstick, the game of Sauteur (which was a bit like playing tag except that you had to use telekinesis to move yourself rather than your legs), sailing and swimming (in the lake), physical self-defence, and of course Balayage!
The three houses that were playing were Moncero, Leo and Aquila, and it was no accident that the Leo and Moncero first years were outside to watch the match. The Aquila first years piled into the stadium five minutes later when they got back from their visit to the forest with Bernard Ungis.
Although it was only a practise match it was very combative, and Leo were attacking as the first years arrived. There was a great deal of cheering
Straight after lunch the Moncero first years found themselves heading for Aquila House, together with the Leo first years, to visit their potions classroom, which was under the lake. Zak and Tallion both noticed that Shaul Malchus was arrogantly lagging behind the group by himself, and that the other Leos didn’t seem to involve him in their conversations.
Unlike when they’d visited Aquila House during the summer with Barty, this time they entered via a shortcut from the main corridor which took them directly to the Aquila classrooms without going near the common room and dorms. It seemed that potions and alchemy were both taught here, much like in Lofthouse Castle, and they would be studying both subjects under the lake.
Well, the Mhonarr Castle students would be studying under the lake, the two Lofthouse Castle students would be studying these subjects in their classrooms in Yorkshire.
A group of fifth years were in the middle of concocting some lurid green potion as they came into the first classroom, and their potions master, Professor Meltham, was berating a carelessly dressed boy about his poor ingredient preparation! The badly diced plimpet roots on the table in front of him vanished with a wave of the professor’s wand, and an un-diced version appeared in their place. The professor told the boy to start again, and then batted him over the head with a textbook he had in his hand.
The first years kept as quiet as mice as the textbook was slammed back down on the desk, and the irate professor glared first at the fifth year and then at the cowering first years who were watching. The fifth year was smirking as the professor turned back to the front of the class, and exchanged a few quiet words with his friends as he set to work dicing up his fresh plimpet root a bit more carefully this time. He looked familiar to Zak and Tallion, but they couldn’t work out why.
After watching the fifth years for a few minutes, which included witnessing a cauldron boiling over and the resultant pool of bright green liquid apparently chasing its squealing female creator round the classroom, they headed to the room next door. In it a group of fourth years were starting an alchemy experiment under the watchful eye of Madame Maxine Cheycoeur, the only French professor on the staff. It looked quite boring because all the fourth years were doing was assembling arrays of flasks and tubes following a design in their textbook.
“Ze alchemy is a slow process, we do nossing fast ‘ere, all slowly and carefully,” explained the professor, as much to the watching first years as to the smirking fourth years.
After a few minutes, the two groups of first years left the Alchemy class, and made their way to the Balayage pitch. All of the boys, and a good number of girls had been looking forward to this, and they were excited to find that three sixth year house teams were having a practise match in preparation for the inter-house tournament which was due to start on the first weekend in October.
Balayage was part of the Physical Activities curriculum, which for the first years included general fitness, learning to fly a broomstick, the game of Sauteur (which was a bit like playing tag except that you had to use telekinesis to move yourself rather than your legs), sailing and swimming (in the lake), physical self-defence, and of course Balayage!
The three houses that were playing were Moncero, Leo and Aquila, and it was no accident that the Leo and Moncero first years were outside to watch the match. The Aquila first years piled into the stadium five minutes later when they got back from their visit to the forest with Bernard Ungis.
Although it was only a practise match it was very combative, and Leo were attacking as the first years arrived. There was a great deal of cheering
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