An interview, written by Taran O’Mordha
House: Ravenclaw
Favorite Colour: Red
Favorite Sweets: Fizzing Whizbees and Zots
Favourite Plant: Nightshade
Favourite Potion: Infinite Flavouring
Potions is one of the favourite subjects of many students. Brewing, blowing things up, you know the stuff. But there is not only that side to potions, we also got theory that teaches us about the background of potions, the history, the way to properly use tools and what they were made of and why. A lot of interesting information. So when I entered the potions room that kind of stuff surrounded me and the Professor, the sound of liquids sloshing in a phial being shaken in a hand accompanying our interview. Let’s begin!
To begin I asked the Professor to tell us about herself
Her name is Robin Thornetree and she grew up in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, which -you guessed it- is where Oxford is. When she went to Hogwarts she was part of Gryffindor House, heck yeah one more for the lions! She grew up around magic, but is a Half-Blood. And her family? Well, it looks like everyone was in different houses! Her mom was a Hufflepuff and her dad a Ravenclaw and while she did not have siblings she said she would have loved to have one to torment. So is that why people have siblings? Brilliant.
I was curious of potions always had been her favorite class back then
So of course I asked, interviews are here for that after all. Her father is a magical botanist and her mother runs an Apothecary, with that combination she always had a love for plants and after getting curious on how they could be used she learned more about potions. That then spiraled into learning how they interact with each other, cancel each other out and so on. But while she was really into Herbology and potions, she did enjoy COMC but not as much as the other two subjects. She tried to always find the most humane way to gather ingredients, but sometimes that isn’t possible. She mentioned that her parents gave her a potions kit when she was 7 that allowed her to brew some potions like turbo farts and belching brew. I bet some of you really like that.
Sounds to me like she was a menace when she was young with that kit in her bag
And she confirmed it, at least a bit. She remembered that in her fourth year she set off glitter bombs in the fountains. It resulted in almost three full days of sparkling water – in the literal sense. She lost a whole bunch of house points because of it, but tried to earn them back during glasses and such. She also sneaked out a couple of times and played the usual pranks. But she didn’t go into details to not give us more ideas than we already have. The Professor shared with me that she was convinced that the Prefects were going to toss her out of the Gryffindor tower. Hey at least it wasn’t dung bombs, right?
Since she was here as a student I wanted to know if she found things that are different or the same from back then
Her graduation was 10 years ago, so some things have changed. Rooms are in different spots for example the Magical Theory classroom she noted – when trying to get there she ended up in a broom closet. She is however glad that the potion classrooms are in the same spot. She stumbled over a photo lab and found out that the access to the caves is different now. But the one thing that every professor seems to remember is the Vanishing stair and it’s in about the same place as it had been for her so she can still get around it by jumping or taking a different route. But could you imagine how funny it would be if a professor got stuck on it? The Professor did miss a lot of other changes but I am sure she’ll discover them, like the cheeky move of the trophy room.
As with every professor I had to ask what she did after graduation
Professor Thornetree wanted to be a professor right after graduation but she couldn’t because there is a rule about having to be out of school for a while first, like 7 years. So she had to do something else to kill time and worked with her parents. They traveled around the world and searched for obscure plants, which makes me wonder how much fun that is and how obscure the plants got but she already had moved on to talking about her jumping on the chance of applying for potion professor once the time was up and she heard a second potion professor position was open.
For those of you who want to teach later, Professor Thornetree explained a bit more about the requirements. Contrary to Muggle Teachers you do not have to go to some school teaching you how to be an educator, thanks to Justin to tell me about that bit I didn’t know about that bit of Muggle Trivia by the way. Instead Hogwarts hires the best and so it helps if you make a name for yourself in your subject, do something that gets you noticed, makes a difference, and shows that you can do this. They also need to have a good base of education so make sure that your O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s are good. Connections can help too sometimes. There is a whole screening process with many layers of approval before getting hired.
So what if potions had never become available
Would she have come to teach something else or would she have worked outside the castle? That seemed to be an easy answer for her because she answered almost immediately that she would have continued working with her parents. Alternatively she would have opened a potions shop of her own and give her parents a cut if they provided the ingredients, so they could open a ranch of some type to raise creatures for their contributions. Kind of a sweet deal if you ask me. But in the end her end goal was always potions. The Professor made it clear that you should do something that you love instead of what others expect you to do just because it was the right thing for them.
Since nobody can work all the time I asked her about passions and hobbies and the like
Other than plants and potions, the Professor likes to meditate, hike and swim. She likes to be active and outside and do things that are good for her mind and relaxation. She also colours and draws, mostly sketches of plants she stumbles over during her day. She shared that she likes to keep her hands busy and so she also tries some other things like woodworking the manual way. While she could do that work magically she has fun to sometimes do it with ‘good old elbow grease’. She insists that it feels more personal to put her creativity into everything and that it is more rewarding, to see something slowly take shape and accomplish the whole item over days or weeks.
Does she have any advice or wise words for the students?
You bet she does. And here we go, with the direct quote this time to catch her spirit.
Make sure what you choose makes you happy. Don’t do stuff because others expect you to. Because then you end up being unhappy and honestly, even with us living 150 years, that’s still too short of a lifetime. It can be hard to say no, to choose you’re own path. But in the end your happiness is what matters above all else.
