hatchery

[chanuphis]

The next alchemy class of their second year, they arrive to the lab to discover that each of them has an ordinary chicken's egg (brown) and another box of miscellanea.

Slughorn explains, when everyone is assembled, that alchemy with an egg is actually where phoenixes are speculated to originate; but no one has the recipe any more and there haven't been new phoenixes for centuries. They will not be making living things today. But the eggshell is a good base from which to appear lots of possible objects; alchemy doesn't like to conjure things into existence in plain sight but is quite willing that new things appear inside eggshells, cocoons, geodes, and similar. Their eggs have been pre-drained of their interiors for this purpose, although some recipes use full eggs.

As last week, they are invited to come up with recipes on paper for review by the professor before trying anything. Known possible results available with this set of ingredients include wooden, decorated eggs nested inside the shell; a shellful of small sharp teeth (the commonest source of hens' teeth, as they have encountered once or twice in potions); successively smaller eggshells the smallest of which holds a blob of mercury; and a perfectly hardboiled egg which can be arbitrarily flavored by exact details of the process. But they are welcome to aim at another result as long as their procedure looks safe.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"...Not knowing what a plastic model of an atom might be, I can't comment on the example, but all the examples I know of involved decades of interim between attempts. I've never heard of an alchemic ritual in more continuous use by a practitioner changing."

[mrwoods]

"Filed under things-to-test, then, somehow. Also what about wands? Can they be used as part of the metaphor? Can they be transformed?"

[alicornucopia]

"I think some alchemists have experimented with the use of wands but can't off the top of my head recall any successful attested rituals known to involve them."

[mrwoods]

"Are they likely to be more dangerous than other rituals, or something?"

[alicornucopia]

"Possibly. Wands can behave unpredictably, especially when used by people not attuned to them - and most people would not choose to give up their wand - or when destroyed."

[mrwoods]

"What kinds of safety precautions should we take when actually experimenting with this, which will of course only happen after at least the full two years this course lasts and we're not about to go trying it every other weekend?"

[alicornucopia]

Sigh. "Perhaps I should tell you in two years."

[mrwoods]

"But then if we do end up being insane enough to try it before the two years are up, we won't actually know what to do and may end up exploding much more things than were strictly necessary."

[alicornucopia]

Heavy mustache-ruffling sigh. "Well, if you were thusly insane, you would at least be advised to make sure the wand is never pointed at anything you don't wish exploded, or near anything you don't wish exploded, and does not begin the ritual damaged in any core-exposing way."

[mrwoods]

He writes this all down, grinning. "Are there any other general precautions for alchemical experimentation? We really aren't gonna experiment anytime soon, but knowing things in advance tends to be useful."

[alicornucopia]

"Have your procedure written down in advance and do not make things up midstream," Slughorn says. "Do not rely on an untested ritual to contain high temperatures or volatile effects by itself and use appropriate crucibles, shields, gloves, etcetera. Avoid using live animals as a target effect or an ingredient until you are exquisitely confident in your general alchemical intuitions and to a lesser extent the same goes for live plants."

[mrwoods]

Write write. "What's likely to go horribly wrong using live plants? And are the things that are likely to go horribly wrong with live animals horribly wronger than torturing innocent animals?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes," says Slughorn dryly, "they can be, although even if they couldn't the advice would stand. Living things in general add a substantial element of unpredictability to a new ritual and may result in difficult-to-kill undesirable magical life."

[mrwoods]

Or, alternatively, difficult-to-kill desirable magical life. He writes something to that effect down. "Thank you, Professor, you're very helpful! Alchemy's fun."

[alicornucopia]

"It's always rewarding to pique interest in a young mind," says Slughorn dryly, and he dismisses them.

[mrwoods]

"Well that was fun," he says, admiring his glass thing.

[chanuphis]

"Mm-hm."

[mswoods]

The following morning, Sadde flops down on the Ravenclaw table and says, "Quidditch!"

[chanuphis]

"Bless you."

[mswoods]

"Tryouts! Are you trying out? I'm trying out. There was a poster in my dorm about it!"

[msmaxwell]

"Ooh! I didn't see! I wanna try out too!"

[chanuphis]

"I don't think so. I'm better on a broom than on the ground but catching things is not my strong suit even if the game weren't badly designed."

[pleating]

"I like watching more than playing. I'm not that good."

[msmaxwell]

"Well you can only become good by practising!"

[mswoods]

"The game may be badly designed but I get to throw evil metal balls at people, it's almost as if someone decided in advance to invent a position with me in mind!"