Upon the chalk board were pictures charmed to appear as poisonous plants, underneath it were no names but instead his name written: Professor Maitland Ritter. As he'd filled the teaching possession, he was fully prepared to take on all responsibilities for teaching Poisons and Antidotes. However, he found it in quintessential that he prepare them with background knowledge such as where the poisonous potions came from before they got into brewing them. He needed his students to be well prepped mentally with material as well as with himself before he begun teaching them to the extent he planned to push them as students.

Maitland's teaching tended to be on par with the eldest years of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students he taught, and he only taught advanced level classes at that point in time. He figured that since most got passing grades, with the straggling few overachievers with higher grades perhaps his curriculum was too advanced for some. He bade his students a farewell, some which he desperately missed as he was fond of their quiet solitude but loud passion for potions and some which he was glad to be rid of with their volume, and came to teach at Merlin's. He had his lesson prepared and new that whether the students liked it or not he would lecture and they would take notes before he'd shoo them off to research with their textbooks with separate assignments.

Crossing his arms, Maitland awaited with an expressionless face his first students to gauge what the Potioneers here were made of.

Aria wasn't exactly sure what they would be learning in this class but he remained optimistic that it would be interesting. He was still overwhelmed at the complexity and difficulty of his classes, he always thought he was good at potions but his classes really pushed him.

The boy walked into the room chanting a buddhist peace chant, he often did this to increase his natural zen energy. He found a seat in the middle row and placed his bag down. Then as he sat there crossed legged he closed his eyes and started a quick meditation session "Breath in the light, and out all the negativity" he said before opening his eyes

His eyes then flicked to the professor, Aria then placed his hands together as though he was saying a prayer and bowed "Nameste Professor, my your day be filled with light" Aria said as he greeting.

As Melody entered she noticed the new professor. She wondered which potions and antidotes he was going to teach them. Looking around she noticed that there were other students already there, one of whom was sitting crosss legged. She recongized them from previous potion classes. She didn't understand the zen thing Aria talked about but didn't have anything against him. Some muggles believed in the same thing but she didn't recall what it was called.

Melody greeted the professor before sitting down. It wasn't hard to find a seat since there weren't many people yet. She wondered if this professor was as strict about being late as Professor Holmes had been.

Though outside of his major, Parker felt like this potions class would be a nice one for healing as well. Sure, they'd probably get to this stuff eventually in his courses, but Parker was just itching to study more in-depth potions related subjects. And plus, Professor Maitland was teaching. Having met him previously, Parker felt comfortable enough with him and knew he'd be able to do well.

He was able to find the small-ish classroom with ease, knowing his way around the dungeons from having the majority of his classes there. In fact, he'd been spending so much time down in the dungeons or indoors in general, that he'd probably lost quite a bit of his colour, which made him look a bit sickly.

Walking in and to his seat, he gave Professor Maitland a small smile.

When she turned her head to see who had walked into the classroom, she hadn't expected to see Parker. It wasn't that she couldn't see what potions had to do with healing but expect for healing potions she hadn't expected him to be in any of her classes. He wasn't doing a double major after all. Just healing but still she was glad to see him and if the professor let him attend there wasn't a problem as far as she could see. She gave him a small waze as he moved to sit down.

He looked paler than when she had last seen him. Maybe he hadn't been out much since then. She hoped everything was okay.

Maitland nodded shortly at Mr. Mallark as he walked by, a tiny bit freaked by the filled with light comment, but said nothing. It was the boy's beliefs, who was he to judge one for that? Definitely not one to judge, he thought. At the sight of Parker he gave the boy a brief meeting of the eyes before straightening himself once more. He was about to mention that the boy was supposed to be in his other class of Spell Damage, but would redirect him later, also he couldn't remember but perhaps the boy was double-majoring this year. He was glad he had a list of student names enrolled in his courses as well, Miss Wilde and Miss Lovegood were kind faces, and he gave them acknowledgement as well as Miss Rose who entered with a flustered face and wide grin.

"It's good to see that you're all prepared to learn," he begun the lesson, "now, I am Professor Maitland Ritter as I've written on the board and I'll be teaching your Poisons and Antidotes from here on out. Participation verbally is necessary in my class, as is any homework I assign."

"As your professor of Poisons and Antidotes, it's important for one to accostom themselves with poisons as plants, which I'm sure you've seen a few of which, next class we'll be brewing these poisons and the class after we begin looking at the counter ingredients for an antidote." He took a breath. "Today we cover the common and uncommon ingredients first."

"On a piece of paper to hand into me by the end of the class, using your books or just general knowledge, write down the names of the plants posted behind me."

ASSIGNMENT:

Once the pictures were revealed, Maitland smiled kindly at his students. Not in a way that said he was reveling in their pain, but rather he was excited to see what sort of intelligence each student brought to his class.

{{OOC: Your assignment is your homework! Either post to class or owl me . I'll post the grades once everyone is posted and up, and if you have problems with the assignment well save the image to your laptop, put it into google image search and an answer should come up. }}

After copying down the questions, Melody answered as best as she could. She thought she recognized these plants.
TO GET AN "ACCEPTABLE" GRADE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
(HINT: All of the poisons have been mentioned in Harry Potter) mandrake

(Hint: Think opposite of a Devil) Angel's trumphet

(Hint: None) Venomous Tentacula


TO GET AN "OUTSTANDING" ANSWER THE ABOVE AND THE FOLLOWING"

(Hint: None) Venus flytrap.

(Hint: This is also a female villain in Batman) poison ivy

(Hint: Google most dangerous plant in the US in google search) Datura stramonium

She hoped that she had gotten the last one right. It hadn't been easy. Putting her pencil down she waited for the professor to collect their papers.

He listened attentively as Professor Ritter started his introduction, though Parker had already met him outside of class just before classes started for the term. Parker had been embarrassed for making such a poor first impression, but the Professor Ritter hadn't seemed to care about that.

With the mention of needing to use their books to answer the questions given, Parker inwardly sighed. Even if he had been a potions major, he wouldn't have been able to afford it, so he hadn't really thought about it coming into the class. He hoped that he had retained some knowledge from Hogwarts to help him out, but he wasn't so sure.

He had a feeling he could guess based off the hints given to them, but he couldn't get careless. Parker pulled out a parchment and quill, as well as his notebook from healing potions in the event that it could be helpful.

Assignment Answers: