Lesson 1 (5th-7th Years) Creating Gold

Alexander was happy, feeling that he had planned an exciting lesson for his older students. The well-known alchemical process of turning metal into gold. Of course, for the purpose of this being a class, only a small amount would be made. Exciting, nonetheless. He waved his wand and wrote on the chalkboard 'Creating Gold' in neat cursive and took a seat behind his desk, waiting for some students to show up.

Due to doing homework late in the night, Mary slept in late the next morning and almost missed breakfast. She got into the Dining Hall just in time to get a cup of coffee and a piece of toast and then it was time for class to begin. Luckily, Alchemy was on the first floor, so she didn't have to go far.

Standing in front of the classroom, the Head Girl vanished the empty cup and nearly inhaled the toast. She walked in, waved to the Professor and Jax and sat down in the middle row. Once she once finished with her toast, she sent an apologetic smile to Professor Hamilton. "Morning!"

The first to enter was a seemingly unenthusiastic boy who merely nodded as a greeting and sat up the back. The second was a girl, still in the middle of her breakfast. No matter, breakfast was important.

"Morning!"

"Good morning... Mary, is it?" he asked, grinning.

Seeing the two students enter, and after waiting for what seemed to him, quite a while, he decided to begin class "Okay, thank you for coming. Welcome to Alchemy. I'm Professor Hamilton and I decided to start off with a very interesting lesson. So, as you're probably aware, Alchemy is pretty much a mixture of magic and science. And a big part of that is to change one substance to another. Today, we'll be turning ordinary metals into gold. Fun right?" he couldn't help the grin on his face. It was truly his passion, and he thought, if he could show his passion, perhaps he could inspire the younger generation to see Alchemy for it's true potential.

"Now," he went to his bag, rummaging through it a bit before producing a small box that contained strips of metal. He opened it and walked over, placing one on Mary's desk, and the other on Jackson's desk before returning to the front "Right, so those are the strips of magnesium that you'll be turning into gold. So, um, do you have the textbooks? Oh, never mind, those things tend to get complex at times. We'll start off with the simple one for small quantities," he said. He moved back and got the rest of the ingredients needed and gave them to each student before moving on.

The ingredients were:

-Strip of Magnesium
-Block of sulphur
-Pure silver shavings
-Mercury (liquid form)
-Quartz stone

He took some chalk and started to write up the method on the board, the simplest one he had planned, and put it into the simplest terms, knowing Alchemy can sometimes get very wordy with it's symbols and 'glossary' terms. He would make sure that they knew the terms, of course. That would be homework.

1. Melt down magnesium to a liquid
2. Add 25 grams of silver shavings and stir until mixed well.
3. Take sulphur block and crush to a fine powder before adding 18 grams to the mixture
4. Carefully pour the mercury and add the quartz at the same time. Do not let the mercury touch your skin as it is extremely toxic.
5. Turn up the heat to 150 degrees celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit)
6. After 10 minutes, allow to cool and finish solidifying


"Make sure to take proper safety precautions and wear some gloves and a mask," he added with a grin "Begin"

Mary couldn't help but grin at the Professor's enthusiasm and as he went on, the witch became excited about the lesson as well. Alchemy was quite complicated, but it was interesting and fun and even just the prospect of turning metal into gold was exciting. She copied down the instructions for future reference and then she put on the plastic gloves.

"Sir, since there's only the two of us, could we work together on this? Melting metals takes a long time and I'm sure Mary can use a hand,"

The Head Girl turned around and glared at the boy for making her out as a helpless little girl. She knew she could do it on her own and she knew Jax could, as well. He was smart, even though he didn't seem very interested in his studies. She had half a mind to say they could work separately, but he had a point, it'd take less time if they worked together.

She turned back to the Professor and half shrugged, half nodded. "I wouldn't mind working with him, sir."

He looked back at his two students at their inquiry to work together. They did have a point, it would take far less time "Well, I suppose. As long as the both of you know the procedure, I don't see why not," he replied. He had no problem with letting them work together, just as long as they got the work done and actually learned from what he set them.

Mary handed gloves and a mask to Jax, getting them for herself as well. "If you screw this up for me, there'll be snakes in your bed for a month. I'm not kidding, I can easily get in your common room." she told him as she was putting on her gloves. Oscar had thought it was important for her and Lydia to know how to "behave like a Nightshade" and she couldn't think of a better excuse to put that knowledge to test.

She set up the scale and carefully measured 25 grams of silver shavings. There was still time while the magnesium was melting and the Head Girl started crushing the block of sulphur. It took a little while till it was crushed into a fine powder and the smell was unbelievable. Mary was really glad she didn't forget about the mask.

"Is it done?" the witch glanced at the Nightshade. "Can you measure 18 grams of this powder while I add the silver shavings?"

"My my," Jackson quipped at the brunette's threat. "Things the ladies do to get into my bed."

"You flatter yourself way too much." Mary rolled her eyes and hid the grin that was threatening to creep on her face. Hanging out with Jax was both so very frustrating and highly amusing and the Head Girl didn't really know how to deal with it.

She anxiously watched as Jax added mercury and quartz and, when everything seemed to be okay, breathed out with relief. It's not that she didn't trust him, it was just... yes, alright, she didn't trust him with something as important as this assignment. Mary then turned up the heat to the required heat and then there was nothing to do but wait for ten minutes.

"This wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be." she remarked happily and tried very hard not to focus on the horrifying smell.

He watched, slightly amused at their conversation, but not interrupting. They worked well together, able to get on with the task. As the room filled with the stench of the different metals melting together, Alexander opened the windows, allowing fresh air to wash in, so it wouldn't be as concentrated. His years of practising alchemy had the effect of making him used to the different smells and odours in his line of work.

"Good, you've finished," he clapped his hands together and walked over to inspect their work, after the ten minutes "Excellent work! Ten points each for academic achievement," he grinned "Right, so it would seem that we're out of time. Homework, I would like for you to both review the recipe, and make sure that you know it, because it might turn up in an exam one day. Not all of it, but bits and pieces. It's good to know. Anyway," he realised he was babbling on, a funny little habit of his "Class dismissed."