It was tough studying for a final when you had no idea what potion it was you were going to be brewing for it. Which meant that the only studying she had done so far was go over all her notes for every potion she had ever brewed which was quite the list. On top of that she had made sure all her potions equipment was in tip top shape and working as should.

"Good afternoon, professor," Hady greeted with her usual grin as she entered the potions room. Taking a seat at her table she laid out all her equipment wordlessly while she had the time to do so. No sense in wasting time that she might need later.

Taking a slow breath and letting it out even slower Hadleigh flipped over the card on her desk when instructed to do so. Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Interesting. She was already happy so this wasn't something she needed unlike a few months ago. Anyhow she was ready to get started. Ninety minutes was enough time if she didn't mess around or make any mistakes. Pay attention and work to the best of her ability.

With the use of her wand she cast several 'Scourgify's' over her equipment ensuring it's cleanliness. First step down. Next she took her measuring cup. "Aquamenti," was cast softly a gentle flow of water pouring from the tip of her wand until exactly two cups worth was made. Canceling the charm she added the water into her cauldron. "Incendio." Was cast a the burner beneath the cauldron the flame being set to low.

If anything, Brooklyn wasn’t nervous at all when she made her way down the corridor to the Potions classroom for the final. There wasn’t any reason to be, seeing as she knew that she was good at the subject, and there wasn’t any need to try to make things any more difficult than they already were. She doubted Professor Newton was going to assign an easy potion, but she liked a challenge. It gave her a reason to prove herself, and she always did that. “Good after noon Professor Newton,” she said as she made her way to her usual station, glancing at the upside-down card lying there as she set up her equipment.

When they were instructed to flip the card over, she did, grinning a little to herself when she saw what potion they were supposed to brew. This should be simple. It wasn’t as if this was the first time she had ever brewed it this term, even if she had really only been helping someone else brew it. Either way, she was confident she could manage without any issues.

Taking her wand out, she Scourgified her equipment to the point she was positive it was spotless, then she cast Aguamenti and measured out two cups of water. Adding that to her cauldron, she pointed her wand underneath and moved it in the familiar wand movement as she whispered “Incendio”. Low flame established, she applied her attention to filling a cup with cold water before shredding a stem of wahoo bark into the cup to infuse.

Janelle was just a little nervous as she approached the Potion classroom for her final. She was trying to be confident, but she knew that a careless mistake could ruin everything. She had done a little Professor Myers meditation before she left her dorm. Hopefully she could stay focused throughout the exam.

Entering the room, she spotted the professor and gave him a cheerful , but nervous greeting. "Hello Professor Newton", she said, and then proceeded to her work station. Janelle unloaded all of her equipment and then went over to the sink. She preferred to was her hands the muggle way for some reason and went about that task immediately. Then she headed back to her seat and took a deep breath. It was showtime and she had to give it her best effort.

Spotting the notecard on her desk, Janelle turned it over and started to read. This seemed like a rather labor intensive potion, but she really shouldn't have expected any less. Now that she had an idea of what equipment she would need, Janelle gathered her things began to clean everything thoroughly. Knife, measuring cups and spoons, mortar and pestle, scales and so on. Saving the best for last, she Scourgified her cauldron, making sure that it was perfect. Once her cleaning was done, she was ready to begin.

Janelle grabbed her potion card and went up to the ingredients table. She needed to make several trips, but she finally had all of her ingredients at her work station. Once she had neatly organized everything to her liking, she grabbed her measuring cup and took out her wand. "Aguamenti", she said and allowed water to poor from her wand into the measuring cup. Once full, she poured the water into her cauldron and repeated the process once more. Two cups added, she moved on to the next step. Janelle pointed her wand beneath the cauldron and said, "Incendio". When the fire was lit, she adjusted the flame so it was low. Now it was on to the ingredients.

Infusion steeping, Brooklyn got ready for the next steps in the potion, starting with grinding the asphodel root into a powder before setting it aside in a small bowl. Obviously she wasn’t about to sit there waiting on the infusion when there was a time limit, not to mention it wasn’t needed yet. Instead, she took her eyedropper and Scourgified it just to be safe before filling it with the fluxweed oil. Holding it over her cauldron, she let six drops fall into the water, counting quietly just to make sure. “One, two, three, four, five, six.” Once that was done, she set the eyedropper aside, switching it for her knife and the bloodroot stems.

Splitting each stem carefully with her knife, she used the tip to scrape the interior fluid and fibrous material into her Scourgified mortar before setting the empty husks down and cleaning her knife again. She also Scourgified her pestle once more before setting it into her mortar and starting to grind the bloodroot materials into a paste. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before she was able to move on.

Holding the mortar over her cauldron, she carefully added the paste to her potion before setting the mortar down and replacing it with a clean stirrer. Sliding it into her cauldron, she began stirring slowly, alternating directions as the instructions demanded. Once a light steam started rising, she switched directions to clockwise again and used her free hand to pick up the measured container of calendula pollen. Slowly, she started adding it to the potion, continuing to stir clockwise. Soon enough, the pollen was added and she set her stirrer aside to move on to the next steps. Namely, more crushing, which necessitated another cleaning of her mortar and pestle, mincing the vervain root once that was finished and then cleaning her knife again.

Scourgifying done, she added the minced vervain to her mortar along with the asphodel powder, starting to grind with her pestle, adding the last six drops of fluxweed oil until the entire mixture was blended into a thick paste as required. Carefully adding the paste to her potion while stirring again, she smiled faintly as it flashed a pink color momentarily before she picked up the hyacinth flower and dropped it in, ceasing her stirring once that was submerged. Now all she had to do was wait for it to boil.

"twenty minutes left," Art said to the class, then went back to silence.

OOC: 24 hours left everyone! There's still time to get started if you haven't already, and you CAN just give me one mega post. Your grade will not be affected.

Checking on her potion again, Brooklyn was relieved to see that it was boiling. Waiting was still not her strong suit, and she doubted it ever would be even if she did choose to go into potions as a career after graduation. She’d always just find ways to occupy herself to distract her from waiting. In any case, since her potion was boiling, she dropped the lovage leaf into the cauldron, watching nearly intently as the liquid started changing colors rapidly. It was almost hypnotizing, but she forced herself to look away in order to start shredding the bouncing bulb she had earlier brought to her station. She didn’t have time to waste, after all, especially as she heard Professor Newton announce there were only twenty minutes left.

Once she’d shredded the whole bulb, she collected the bits together into a bowl and started adding them to the cauldron, using her free hand to stir with her stirrer until every last bit was dissolved into the liquid. She quickly withdrew her hand, though, as droplets started to bounce up. There wasn’t any way she was going to risk burning herself, even given the fact she had put gloves on before she had started. She wasn’t planning on making stupid mistakes now, not when she’d prided herself on making very few mistakes up until now, over the past six terms. Not that Professor Newton would know that.

Dropping the sprig of peppermint into the cauldron carefully, she quickly covered the cauldron before using her wand to cancel out her earlier flame charm. Now came the disgusting part of the procedure, since she didn’t exactly have anyone e4lse to scrape frog slime for her this time. Instead, she had to do it herself, using a small wooden stick to scrape the belly of the frog and depositing the slime into two little tablespoon measuring spoons. Preferably she was going to avoid dealing with the slime as much as possible, and that meant she wasn’t planning on separating the two tablespoons of slime now that it was collected. She set the frog in a container though, to keep it from hopping around and disturbing her workspace.

Adding one tablespoon to the potion, she used her stirrer again to stir it exactly three times clockwise before adding the other tablespoon of slime and the billywig sting. Once that was complete, she turned her attention to the remaining ingredients and cleaned an eyedropper again to collect her glumbumble fluid. Picking up the alihotsy leaf in one hand, she held the eyedropper in the other as she dropped the leaf into the cauldron. Immediately afterward, she followed it with a drop of glumbumble liquid, setting the eyedropper down again to exchange it for her wand as she cast Incendio again. Once the flame was lit again under her cauldron, she Scourgified the eyedropper again quickly before checking on her infusion and her cauldron to see if the potion was boiling again. It would have to do, and she squeezed a small amount of the wahoo bark infusion into the eyedropper seconds before a minute was up.

Extinguishing the flame again, she set her wand aside and let her potion start cooling, holding the eyedropper over it and letting three drops fall into the liquid while the cooling continued. Cleaning the eyedropper yet again, she peeked over the edge of her cauldron. It looked iridescent to her. She just had to hope that Professor Newton agreed. Once it was completely cool, she carefully gathered some of the potion into a vial and labeled it with her name, house, and everything else necessary, turning it in to the professor before returning to her workstation and cleaning up.

Looking at her card, Janelle saw that she needed to prepare an infusion of wahoo bark. She put on her gloves, grabbed one stem of the bark and began to shred it carefully. Next she got a clean bowl and her measuring cup. Taking her wand again, she said, "Aguamenti". Janelle measured out one cup of water and poured it into the bowl. Then she added her shredded bark into the cold water. Infusion time. As instructed, the Ravenclaw got her dropper and proceeded to add 6 drops of Fluxweed oil to her water.

Checking her notes again, Janelle knew that it was time to get messy. Glad that she had organized her ingredients and equipment, she retrieved her three bloodroot stems. With her knife, Janelle split the stems one by one. Then she used the side of her knife to get all of the gooey insides out from the stems. The goo was scraped into Janelle's mortar and prepared for mashing. Taking her pestle, she crushed, mashed and smashed the stem insides until she had a nice paste. Annnnd into the cauldron all of that went.

Janelle found her stirring spoon and placed it into her cauldron. She began to slowly stir, round and round. Clockwise, counterclockwise. Clockwise, counterclockwise. On and on she went until finally, the ingredients in the cauldron started to heat. Janelle saw steam rising from the mixture and knew that she was ready to move on. Sooo, she got her scale and measured three drams of calendula pollen. Easy peasy. Then the pollen was poured into the cauldron......slowly. Being that the spoon was still in the cauldron, Janelle stirred in a clockwise direction until everything was well mixed.

Janelle removed the spoon and set it aside. Then she cleaned her mortar and pestle. It was time for more crushing. But wait, the ingredients list said 1 finely minced vervain root. The procedure said to crush it. Janelle was confused as to which direction was correct. She was about to raise her hand, but knew that her time was running out. She was going to have to make an executive decision, and fast. If she was wrong, her potion would be ruined and she would fail her final. No pressure. Finally Janelle decided to go with option B. She put the root in her mortar and began to crush it. When she had finished, she poured the crushed vervain root into a clean bowl. Since the vervain and asphodel root were going to be mixed together anyway, Janelle thought it safe to place the asphodel directly into the mortar. The asphodel root was then crushed and added to the vervain root. One, two, three, four, five, six drops of fluxweed oil was added to the powder mixture and a tiny spoon was used to mix everything together until it was a pastey mix.

Janelle checked her watch and tried not to panic. Hurrying, but not too much, she added the paste to her cauldron. Then she held her breath. There were so many things she could have done wrong so far. She hoped against hope that her potion was right. Still unsure, she was happy to see that her potion turned pink for a brief moment. Was she on the right track. There was no time to linger on that thought. Time was of the essence. Next in line was the hyacinth flower and Janelle dropped the whole thing into the pot. Patience and waiting were not Janelle's strong suit. Fortunately it did not take long for the potion to boil. Then she picked up her lovage leaf and added that to the potion too. Standing back, the fifth year watched in amazement. Her potion was quickly changing from one color to another. It was actually pretty cool. She just hoped that the colors that flashed by were the right ones.

Back to Potions card. Janelle was supposed to leave her potion to boil. In the meantime, she found her bouncing bulb, cleaned her knife and began to shred it. When that was completed, she added the shredded pieces to the cauldron and resumed stirring. She kept at it until she could see no more little bulb pieces in the liquid. The rainbow thing was still going on with her potion and it was definitely still bubbling. However, Janelle had to wait a bit for the bouncing droplets to happen. They finally did........sort of.

Was this potion ever going to be finished? There was an end in sight and Janelle hoped that she would make it to the finish line. If this was the final, Janelle didn't want to think about what the Potions OWL might be like. Getting her mind back in focus, she got back to work. She picked up her sprig of peppermint and into the cauldron it went. Janelle placed the top on her cauldron, to seal in all of the goodness. She extinguished the fire and stepped away from the cauldron. There was more to do and she wasted no time in getting to it.

Now Janelle was not the squeamish type, but this next step was going to be nasty. Janelle got her live frog and resisted the urge to name him and play with him..........'cause, you know..........animals were her thing. Anyway, she grabbed her measuring spoon and began to gently scrape slime from her frog's belly. When she had one tablespoon, she dropped the glop in a bowl and repeated the task until she had a second tablespoon. She removed the cover from her cauldron and added the second tablespoon of slime to the mixture. With a spoon she stirred clockwise three times. After checking her notes, Janelle added the billywig sting and scraped the first tablespoon of slime from the bowl into the cauldron.

The next step required speed and perfect timing. Preparation would be needed so Janelle had her glumbumble fluid ready in advance. She added her alihotsy leaf to the potion and without missing a beat, squeezed one drop of the glumbumble fluid in right after that. She quickly relit her flame, got her watch ready and waited. When the potion began to boil, Janelle timed sixty seconds. At the end of that time, she turned the flame off again. She quickly Scourgified her dropper and then added three drops of her whahoo bark infusion one at a time.

When Janelle looked at her directions once more, she realized that she was finished. She peeked into her cauldron and saw that her potion was in fact stil changing shimmery colors. It did seem to have some bubbles in it and she hoped that this was the desired effect. Now that she was done, she refused to dwell on her potion. She started cleaning all of her dirty equipment and her work station. When everything was cleaned and put away, Janelle allowed herself to breathe. She felt relief that she was finished, but worried about whether or not she had done everything right. There was nothing she could do about it now though. Once the potion was cool, Janelle placed a sample of it in a vial and labeled it with her identifying information. Then she took it to the professor's desk and left it with him. "That was a very challenging potion Professor", Janelle said. But she was done now. Free at last.

"Thank you Miss Andrews," Art said to the Slytherin who had completed her potion. He smiled at Miss Guidry as she handed in her potion. "Well you did a good job, regardless, I'm sure. Good work Miss Guidry."

With a look at the clock he quietly announced "Five minutes left," just to bring awareness to those still working.

OOC: 4 hours left