New year, new teachers
Sep. 8th, 2014 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_nevilleI think it's rather a pity that now that we have a new Potions professor for the first time in seven years, we're getting less time with Professor Gimlet than we ever had with Professor Slughorn. It would have been interesting to compare the two teaching styles, but the one hour lecture we had on Monday last week and today hasn't really been enough to give me much of a strong first impression.
At least there's the long lab session on Tuesdays. In addition to brewing the assigned 7th year potions, I hope I'll have time to experiment with some new concoctions that'll tie to the independent research I've been doing in NEWT Herbology. I think I really have settled on what I want to do when I leave school: to develop new ways of cultivating plants so they'll be more effective in medicinal potions.
It's a little frustrating that the coldest seasons fall during the heart of the school year. I brought back samples of the plants I tended last summer, and I hope I've enough different varieties to make experimentation worthwhile. There are some medicinal potions in the 7th year curriculum, anyway. Hopefully that research'll keep me busy until the spring plants are up and out of the pots again.
I think Defence is going to be quite different, with Professor Desai, but again, it's a little soon to know exactly what that means. I'm afraid I'll be at rather a disadvantage since I haven't been through CCF training, though.
On the whole, though, I'm pretty pleased with how the first week's classes went. Transfiguration and Charms and especially Herbology were brill. As for the second week...we'll see. But I have a good feeling about this year. I liked the Headmaster's speech at the Welcoming Feast, and everyone seems to agree he's added excellent people to the staff to promote Our Lord's purposes here at Hogwarts.
At least there's the long lab session on Tuesdays. In addition to brewing the assigned 7th year potions, I hope I'll have time to experiment with some new concoctions that'll tie to the independent research I've been doing in NEWT Herbology. I think I really have settled on what I want to do when I leave school: to develop new ways of cultivating plants so they'll be more effective in medicinal potions.
It's a little frustrating that the coldest seasons fall during the heart of the school year. I brought back samples of the plants I tended last summer, and I hope I've enough different varieties to make experimentation worthwhile. There are some medicinal potions in the 7th year curriculum, anyway. Hopefully that research'll keep me busy until the spring plants are up and out of the pots again.
I think Defence is going to be quite different, with Professor Desai, but again, it's a little soon to know exactly what that means. I'm afraid I'll be at rather a disadvantage since I haven't been through CCF training, though.
On the whole, though, I'm pretty pleased with how the first week's classes went. Transfiguration and Charms and especially Herbology were brill. As for the second week...we'll see. But I have a good feeling about this year. I liked the Headmaster's speech at the Welcoming Feast, and everyone seems to agree he's added excellent people to the staff to promote Our Lord's purposes here at Hogwarts.
Re: Order Only: Private Message to Neville
Date: 2014-09-09 06:12 am (UTC)Re: Order Only: Private Message to Neville
Date: 2014-09-09 11:50 am (UTC)Say hello to Mrs Wilson-Lee for me, would you? I learned so much this summer, working with her in the greenhouse at Moddey. I almost hated to give those books on plant genetics back to her--they were tough going at times, but that's a whole side of my education I could never get at Hogwarts, and it will help my research so much this year.
I miss you and Dad and Kevin. And Terry, of course. And I'm nervous about what this year might be like, without Professor McGonagall at the helm. The kids here like Professor Dolohov--but I keep thinking of some of the things we know he's done.
I'll do my best to keep my head down and stay out of his way. It's lucky, in a way that I'm a NEWT student, buried in my own projects. It's easy to avoid people if you're in the greenhouses most of the time.