Joint Lesson: Herbology + Potions

[kayquilz]

Professors Noble and Myers had been patiently trying to schedule this lesson for a few weeks, and had both been relieved that it’d been possible to do so when all the students were back from the Christmas break. Outside, it was an icy January day, but inside Greenhouse 4 the temperature was balmy, tropical even. Lush green plants filled the flowerbeds, vines hung down from the ceiling, and there was a particularly pungent smell on the air. By the door was a pile of face masks and a number of white MagHaz suits hanging up on hooks. A note explained their use:

Face masks or bubblehead charms recommended, though you may proceed without - don’t say we didn’t warn you! Anyone with severe allergies is expected to don a MagHaz suit, due to the varied nature of plants in this greenhouse.

Being a joint lesson, the clearing where class was held was laid out a bit different to usual. The workbenches were laid out in a horseshoe shape focused on one large plant, and each held burners and tripods sat ready for cauldrons. At the front, the two Professors couldn’t have more different demeanors if they’d tried: Myers donned a particularly thick, knitted poncho with as much vibrancy as one would expect and wore an equally as festive smile because holidays always put him back in a good mood; Noble wore a furrow upon his brow as he paced impatiently, bubblehead charm already in place, hands folded behind his back and navy blue robes sweeping behind him.

SPOILER!!: Lesson Progression

• What is special about corpse flowers?
• THIS is what is special about corpse flowers!
• What properties do you hypothesise a corpse flower might infuse in a potion?
• Here's a few properties corpse flowers can add!
• Harvesting Parts!

[Cassirin]

Yeah, those beetle eyes were definitely turning... dull. It was actually a bit creepy, like her potion had been staring at her and now it had slowly died on her. Dead potion. No, the potion was just fine, and the beetle eyes had already been dead, so to speak. Chloe stopped making eye contact with her potion and dropped the ground beetles and crup urine into the cauldron, followed by her stirrer.

And apparently it didn't matter which direction she stirred, as long as she stopped at five. Or about five. Or when it turned red! The moment the potion turned bright red, Chloe lifted her rod from the cauldron and peeked inside. Nice. She didn't set it aside, though, instead dropping it back into the potion to stir counter-clockwise following the spadix scraping. Then in the opposite direction after adding the spathe.

And simmering. Perfect. Chloe grabbed up her garlic and paring knife. Mincing was like... super duper small, right?

[Anna Banana]

Uhh...oops.

Maddie's eyes grew wide as she watched her stash of beetle eyes and oil concoction vanish before her very eyes. How embarrassing! At least she wasn't the only one getting called out in front of the entire class. There'd been that lot of students who'd kept their masks on, too. Noble was FIERCE. "Sorry, Professor," she said. Realizing she would have to start all the way back at the beginning, she turned off her cauldron to let it cool down. After that, she wandered off to collect the correct amount of beetle eyes.

Once the cauldron was cool again and clean of any of the previous solution, she added a glug of castor oil to it. She then picked up the cauldron and swirled the oil up the sides a few times. Sigh. She hated having to go all the way back to step one. She'd never let the professor know that, though. She had a feeling she'd be scooping up dung from pens or something. Pretty soon, the cauldron was back on the tripod and over a low heat. Her gaze wandered over to her whole beetles. At least they'd remained in the mortar and hadn't been vanished with the rest of the lot.

The next step was to add the beetle eyes, which Maddie checked and double-checked the amount of before adding them to the cauldron. She was a hundred percent sure she had the correct amount now. On that note, all she had to do now was wait until the beetle eyes dulled in color.

[lazykitty]

Still letting his anger shimmer (though all he wanted to do was fling his cauldron, oil and all, at the potions professor), Ronan swirled his cauldron around until the inside was lightly coated with the oil, then placed it back on the tripod, turning the burner to a low heat. Next was the five teaspoons of beetle eyes (ugh, the things creeped him out), which, after being measured, were dumped into his cauldron. Then were the five whole beetles, which were placed into his mortar and crushed with his pestle into a fine powder. Once the beetle eyes had turned dull, he added the ground beetles and crup urine, stirring the mix five times until it turned it turned bright red (and being quite glad to not have to look at the urine anymore, honestly). Then the spadix of the corpse flower was added, the potion stirred twice counterclockwise, followed by the spathe, after which the potion was stirred three times clockwise. Next to be added were his toenail clippings, sprinkled in.

Leaving his potion to shimmer, Ronan picked up his potions knife and started mincing the garlic. Something he was quite quick at, thanks to his cooking abilities. In fact, he finished with exactly two minutes left. Two minutes he used to quickly copy down the instructions so far. Once the five minutes were up, he added the garlic and started beating the potion, exactly as the board instructed. After all, Noble wouldn't have written it if he didn't want them to do it. Unless this was a test. Either way, his potion was well on its way to resembling instant coffee (side note: did anyone actually drink that stuff? The coffee, of course, not the potion.).

[hermygirl]

Noble glanced around the room to see how everyone was getting on. Surprisingly, given his temper, Ronan seemed to be charging ahead. He also noted how evenly minced Emmalyn's garlic was. Maddie seemed to be on her way to catching back up, with the right amount of beetle eyes this time...and Chloe was just starting on the mincing. "Remember...minced means it should be very finely chopped into small pieces. Use a chopping motion with one hand on top of blade, and rock the knife back and forth to make sure you really catch everything."

He made quick work of his own garlic, and just in time too, since his timer announced the five minutes of simmering was up. Noble used his silver knife to scrape neatly minced garlic into the cauldron. "When five minutes is up, add the garlic and beat the mixture well. It's going to look like a horrible red mess to begin with as it seizes and changes texture." He took a wooden spoon and gave his a good mix...holding up the spoon to show the gloopy, oily mess he'd created so far. "Keep at it though, as with a bit of arm ache, it'll turn into brown granules." Which, as he'd written on the board, would look pretty similar to instant coffee...if anyone still drank that awful stuff. "Once it has, turn your heat off and leave it to cool. Those of you who used toenails, try smelling someone else's pest repellent to get the full effect of how it can work on humans too."

Was there anything else he needed to say? Oh, right. How to use it. He really didn't need anything thinking they needed to consume the stuff, and suing him for poisoning. "The granules can then be mixed into your fertiliser or compost, and sprinkled around the base of any plants you want to keep safe from pests." ...which, he was sure Paul would have something to say about before class was dismissed. He looked over to the Herbology Professor, gesturing with his hand to suggest the floor was all his.

[Cassirin]

Chloe could feel that Noble was watching her, and she grinned at him as she minced. Maybe minced her finger too, but nothing a bit of bandage couldn't fix for the time being. And she should really pay attention to what she's doing so she didn't end up with blood in her potion. Chloe cleaned up her work area and resumed the mincing.

Lucky the potion was meant to look a horrid red mess, so the garlic could be a little bloody. Not that it was. It definitely wasn't. She beat her potion hard with the wooden spoon, surprised that it actually was getting hard to stir. Harder, and harder, in fact, until it was essentially impossible to move any more and the potion itself was grainy and dark. That had to be... what he wanted.

Yeah... poison.

[Birchwoodmom]

Her garlic was finely minced and ready to be added. At the five minute mark, she scraped her garlic into the cauldron and began mixing with her wooden spoon. It was gross looking, just like Professor Noble had mentioned. The look was all wrong, so she knew she must be doing it right.

She kept stirring, her arm starting to ache, but still stirring. Round and round her wooden spoon went in the cauldron until she was about to give up and see if she had done something wrong after all. However, just at the point when she wanted to give up, it changed. Brown granules were forming before her eyes. Once all of it had turned, she switched off the heat and left it to cool.

Her granules didn’t smell bad at all and she was curious how the others smelled. She wondered how nail clippings could make such a difference. Her curiosity got the better of her and she lifted her mask once more and took a bit whiff of the cauldron next to her. “Oh, yuck!” Emmalyn quickly pulled her mask back over her face, stomach turning, and moved back to her cauldron. Her mask would remain on for the rest of the class.

She took a few more notes as she waited to see if Professor Myers had anything else to add. Her granules would be perfect to add to her little garden plot she had started in the fall. Some sort of creature had eaten all of her pumpkins before she was able to carve one or make a pumpkin pie. She didn’t want the same fate for any of the spring vegetables she had recently planted.

Then she thought of something “Professor Noble, sir, are you able to use more than one person's toenails? Like the toenails of an entire family? I know you said anyone that had toenails in the potion would be immune to the smell, but I wasn't sure if there was a limit. ” That would come in handy if more than one person was using a garden.

[Anna Banana]

Since Maddie had started over a little while ago, she was just at the point where she noticed the dulling of the beetle eyes. Good. She was catching up now. Maybe she'd even manage to finish shortly after the rest of the class. She stirred in her ground whole beetles and the crup urine (ewww) and watched carefully until the potion turned a bright red. Five stirs, just like the professor had said. There was actually a moment of panic as she waited for the reddening of the potion. Noble had been decent about the first mistake she'd made, but she didn't think he'd be so understanding if she made a second mistake. Everything seemed okay, though.

THANK MERLIN.

Now to add the corpse flower, spadix first, of course. She stirred twice in an anti-clockwise direction. After that, she added in the spathe, stirring three times in a clockwise direction. She'd been nervous that she'd get all that mixed up, but she hadn't. After that first mistake, Noble had pretty much scared her into doing the potion perfectly.

The next step wasn't quite as disgusting as the crup urine, but it was a good second. Nail clippings. At least they were her nail clippings. She sprinkled them in and then began the five minute wait. In the meantime, she used her silver knife to start the process of finely mincing the garlic.

[Waterloo]

For once, things seemed to be going well. He added the ground up beetles and the smell crop pee and stirred the mixture five times just as Professor Noble said. And yep, the potion went a bright shade of red. Awesome.

Feeling more confident and completely unaware he’d got the measurements muddled up when scraping the flower, Max then added the other bits and bobs. First the 1/3 cup of flower spadix and then the 1/2 cup of flower spathe. He stirred everything like the recipe said and then sprinkled in the nail clippings he’d brought along.

While everything was simmering, he got to mincing up his garlic. Finely chopped, just like Professor Noble said. Okay, maybe he wasn’t so bad at Potions after all. This was going GREAT.

At least….. it had been up until this point.

He beat at the concoction until his arm felt like it was about to fall off…. But brown granules? Nope. More like a dark red, sticky jelly mess.

Uhhhhhh.

[Anna Banana]

By the time the five minute wait was up, Maddie had finished preparing the garlic and had measured out a teaspoon of it. She adding it into the mixture then began beating it with a wooden spoon. She held her breath, knowing she was almost finished and not wanting to mess up again right here at the very end. She seemed to be doing alright, though, even though her arm kind of felt like it was going to fall off any second now.

Pretty soon, brown granules began to make their appearance, and not long after that, the potion was complete. The Hufflepuff turned the heat off then left the potion to cool. She listened as the professor finished things off by explaining just how the mixture could be used. Cool. They could always use a good pesticide in Herbology class for the remainder of the year.

When Noble looked toward Myers, Maddie did, too. She was sure their bubbly Head of House would end things on a high note.

[Dokimoto]

Kye barely realized that she was being spoken to, just being a bit relieved it wasn't Professor Noble clearing her cauldron out. She turned to the younger Skyler when she realized she was speaking to her. "Oh, well it's not terribly complex, but I did hesitate with the 'glug' instruction..." As she spoke, she noticed that these instructions were being written on the board... Something she wondered why they hadn't done sooner. "Okay, so you need to gather up these," she pointed at the top of her notes as she scribbled down the ingredients and process. "and I'll help you get everything started if you'd like?" Kye kept an eye on her beetle's eyes while she waited for Skyler, assuming they could work at the same pace.

[Bazinga]

Honestly, Chloe was super excited to be in a Herbology class that she started missing many things like the take your mask off thing. Had she really not done that or had she not been one of the ones he was talking to? She was so confused that she just sat quietly writing down more notes as she waited for what was going to come next.

After the professor gave more instructions she got up and went to the front. Making sure to measure out a cup of Crup urine, which was really gross if she said so herself, a clove of garlic, and went back to her seat. Grabbing her cauldron she went back to the front and put the oil just at the bottom.

As she returned to her workstation again she listened and did exactly what shew as told, swirling the cauldron and getting the oil to go on all sides before placing it on the burner and making sure it was on low heat. The next step was the beetle things, making sure to have five teaspoons she placed it in the mortar and started to crush it. Adding the powder to the cauldron she looked up to see what was next.

Adding the crup urine and mixing the beetle things and the urine together she kept looking to see what color it was becoming. Wow, this was starting to move fast, Chloe tried her best to keep up. Now that it was red she stirred in the parts of the flower that they had to collect and stirred int he direction she had been told.


1, 2, 3.....

She kept trying to count in her head. Picking up the baggy she had brought with her she dumped the nail clippings into the cauldron. Picking up the garlic she started to mincing it. All this was making her miss cooking with her mom, she wasn't aware of being homesick until just now.

Now that was finished she added it into her cauldron. Now for more arm work, Chloe eagerly started and soon realized her little arms weren't going to be much help as they started to hurt quickly. Even a quidditch player could forget about a few muscles until they were screaming. Keeping an eye on her potion it finally started to turn colors, so this was what it was to look like?

[2111jen]

SPOILER!!: Kye

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dokimoto

Kye barely realized that she was being spoken to, just being a bit relieved it wasn't Professor Noble clearing her cauldron out. She turned to the younger Skyler when she realized she was speaking to her. "Oh, well it's not terribly complex, but I did hesitate with the 'glug' instruction..." As she spoke, she noticed that these instructions were being written on the board... Something she wondered why they hadn't done sooner. "Okay, so you need to gather up these," she pointed at the top of her notes as she scribbled down the ingredients and process. "and I'll help you get everything started if you'd like?" Kye kept an eye on her beetle's eyes while she waited for Skyler, assuming they could work at the same pace.

Skyler nodded. She hadn't been paying attention at all through the whole lesson so she hoped she coule do a half decent job. Now what exactly was there?


((Ooc, I will edit this when I look at the things to get))

[PhoenixRising]

Skylar noticed the raised eyebrow from Noble, but he didn't say anything, so did that mean her potion was okay? Was she supposed to add the urine now? Yes she was definitely all out of sorts, but hopefully after meeting with Xandra next weekend she'd be able to sort through the millions of thoughts in her head.

Oh there was the recipe.

Eyes were added, and now for the ground whole beetles and crup urine, both of which she just sort of dumped promptly. Red, so far so good. Add the spadix. Add the spathe. Wait... UH OH... That was when her face seemed to shift to the colour her potion had been before the spadix and spathe because she'd forgotten the twice anti-clockwise stir. Could she? Do so now? Glancing around inconspicuously, she stirred twice anti-clockwise and three times clockwise. Hopefully it would still be okay.....

Nail clippings? OH what she'd brought, right.... Fetching small container of them from her bag, she sprinkled them and let it simmered while she minced the garlic with her silver knife. And time to beat the potion ... if only she could do so with her beater's bat, except she reckoned it might cause more harm than good. Fortunately she had a ton of bent up aggression, which made whipping it easy. Almost too easy, as she seemed to over-beat the potion. Brown granules? Nope. More like eggplant shade and kind of had a maple syrup consistency.

UHhhhhhhh... And to do it over, well, she didn't have any more toe nail clippings with her, although it seemed that was maybe an optional step.

Maybe something WAS out of sorts with her, considering her potion brewing was normally on-point. Folding her arms on the desk, she just stared at her wrecked potion, looking somewhat like a lost puppy.