Analesia's comment isn't up yet, so I hope these posts don't conflict. If  they do, we can try to combine ideas if possible, and I suppose just choose if impossible.

Ooh, the future! That sounds awesome! We might want to use terms other than 'magic' and 'potions,' though. I have a feeling that, if we ever got to the point in technology that could produce the same effects as what we currently consider to be magic, we'd never call it magic. People have this assumption that in order to be 'magic,' it must be something that cannot be explained by the laws of physics. That's ridiculous, of course; there's nothing in the dictionary definition that implies any such thing--but if what we consider magic now was proven possible, it would by no means detract from its magicalness. I mean, come on. Look at us now. We can breathe underwater. We can fly to the moon. We're well on our way to turning objects invisible, for goodness' sake! People used to think that was magic, and most people still think that turning things invisible will always be impossible and 'thus' is magic. I'm sure that if we ever got to wizardry-style magic, we'd consider it some sort of advanced technological thing. I think we can definitely find a way to make spells and things seem like technology, at least in people's eyes (We can make it perfectly obvious that it's a narrow-minded point of view if we want, but it wouldn't change what people would think.).

If it's really in the future, though, it makes no sense logically that some people would be able to do magic because they've an inborn ability and others will be unable due to lack of this ability, at least to me. Probably the 'magic' is a learned ability, but, like singing, math, and all other skills, some people are better at it than others. Hence the time-traveling test. In that case, I take back what I said about how I thought it would be so much better if our main character was magical and wanted to do potions than the other way around. It doesn't apply, because this isn't the same kind of magic. I'm willing to do either.

Oh, and on the test, can we please have our character go to places that aren't ancient as well--like the United States in about 2010? I've always wanted to write a story about someone from the past or the future or an alternate universe or something who visit modern times, because it puts a very interesting perspective on things and hasn't been done many times--people just want to write about modern humans visiting other worlds, which has become a tiresome cliche.

So, let's see, what have we so far? Let's see...

Characters: We need to figure out gender for the character. It would be easier for me to do a girl, because I'm one, and I know more about the way girls think than boys--and everyone who has posted so far is a girl as well, so it probably shouldn't be too difficult for them, either--but I'm flexible. If everyone else wants to do a boy, that's fine. We also need to figure out a name. I'd reccommend one of those newfangled names that maybe a few people (mostly celebrities, probably; they're the ones who generally start general naming trends) are starting to name their babies, but haven't become widely used yet and that maybe many people don't even know about yet: Like Apple! Willow was one, but now there are all sorts of people naming their babies Willow; it's already happened. It's not new enough... We can have some grandparents named Willow, though. I can research those sorts of names and make a list once I know which gender to look for.

Maybe it seems a bit extreme to use names that hardly even exist yet, but I think it's necessary. Sure, some names, like 'Mary' and 'John' have survived centuries, but

Setting: The future. We need to decide upon the year. The society would need to be extremely advanced to have gotten to what we consider magic, so it'll be centuries from now. We also need to decide where it will take place.

As for the other categories, well, I don't like to plan hose too much, because I don't really like to know everything that's going to happen before it does. Still, if everyone else wants to carefully map out major plot points, we can go ahead. I'm not posting anything besides the obvious, though. I like inventing details and building on other people's ideas, not planning main ideas and important events. Besides, it's getting kind of late, and I've been writing this (on and off) for a long while, and I'd like to do  something else right now...

Problem:

Events: A class of students takes Test to see how well they could perform The Thing, which is basically magic. If they pass, they spend the rest of their lives doing The Thing, and if not, they spend the rest of their lives making medicines and things (except that by then, of course, they do many things besides healing illnesses, and resemble potions). The MC either passes or fails, and wants to do what s/he isn't supposed to do with his/her life, so s/he goes to the wrong school under a different name. Things happen.

Resolution: