Was it time for Kaiser to speak up?

... No. It was not. He had a passing interest in creatures, because that was all that he had ever allowed himself. For reasons. Ultimately, however, his knowledge of animals great and small, magical or mundane, was basic at best, and he certainly didn't think very much about their susceptibility to eye conditions.

He had nothing to contribute here either, and was mostly just waiting for the part of the lesson where they brewed the potion. While he waited, Kaiser balanced his quill on his upper lip like a long feathery moustache, wriggling his mouth this way and that to keep it in place.

Vita agreed with several of her classmates. Any creature with eyes could suffer eye problems, though some species might be more prone to them than others. "I imagine creatures out in the wild have more of a chance to suffer from an eye ailment than those being looked after by a caretaker in a more controlled environment. Easier to observe the start of a problem and try to take care of it when someone is watching out for you."

Eniola raised her hand again, "Well, Acromantulas - I can only assume - as they have so many eyes." she continued. [B]"Being in the wild, especially with recent events, they're much more likely to get hurt as Vita said."

Thinking of the oversized, creepy crawlies alone made Eni shiver. She never did like bugs, especially large ones that have an appetite for humans.

Kamryn let out a soft sigh of relief as she had gotten that right. She really didn’t want to fail her head of house, she wanted to make him proud of her.. and her being a Hufflepuff.

Her brown head naturally swiveled towards Patrick as he spoke, for reasons.. that she wasn’t even going to think about or divulge right now. But she smiled in agreement. Most creatures seemed like they would have eye issues.. she gave him a tiny little smile before raising her own hand in the hair.

“I feel like crups would have lots of eye issues Professor. ” She said softly.

Seeing as they were close enough to muggle dogs, and she knew muggle dogs got cataracts.

Analiese fiddled with her pearly white quill as she listened to the others' answers. Then she thought about it herself. What creatures would most likely have eye issues? "What about kneazles? Muggle cats are known to get feline conjunctivitis. And since kneazles are cat-like creatures, I'd take an educated guess that their eyes are quite similar." She answered the question - in quite a lot of detail, as a matter of a fact. She silently scribbled down notes as she half-listened to the other answers. She pondered to herself where Professor Noble going with this, talking about eye illnesses and all. The young Claw placed her quill back in her desk and pretended to be interested in the lesson. She was normally obsessed with potions, but ailments of the eye? Never.

SPOILER!!: “Most creatures”

Quote:

Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson

Patrick nodded, "Yes, I knew it made the lights change but was unsure of what it actually did for the eyes. Thank you professor." That made way more sense knowing what actually happened to the eye when you had an astigmatism. He could only imagine what lights looking different did to his friends who had astigmatisms.

Patrick was writing the answers quickly, "Wouldn't most creatures? They're often exposed to the elements and have few people looking after them in the same way people look after their pets." And the more he said that the more he figured that he was going down the wrong path and would be getting to do extra homework.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

Writing down specific ailments of the eyes as the professor confirmed or elaborated each one, Gunnar looked up from the notes as Noble continued, posing another question to the class. Oh awesome, were they going to be brewing something specifically for creatures? He'd find this useful for his own independent studies.

And while he found some of the answers given by his classmates to be fairly insightful with their reasoning, he didn't think he needed to be quite so specific. Raising his hand, he added, "Any creature that has eyes has the potential for some sort of ailment to befall them." That was just nature, wasn't it? Maybe some were more likely than others, but simply the fact that they existed opened the possibility. And probably an unhelpful addition, but it was true.

SPOILER!!: The quiet ones

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Ew.

Feigning disinterest in lessons was typically quite the task for Nina Castillo, but it was far easier when the subject matter included something as gross as eye ailments. A subject, which, on it's own was not actually disgusting. But the answers her classmates gave were far too unsettling. Conjunctivitis. Ew. Nina frowned at the mention of eye-discharge. She would far rather work on a potion set for mood changing or something. This was disgusting.

What was even worse was the next question. Creatures. Why did they have to bring creatures up in every lesson under the sun???? Creatures were meant for Care of Magical Creatures lessons and Care of Magical Creatures lessons ONLY. Couldn't they just keep them in the barn where they belonged? Nina didn't want to learn how to brew a potion for the aliment of eyes with CREATURES involved because she did not plan on going near any creature at all. Ever. Never mind if it had an eye ailment. They were all the same. No thank you.

She wouldn't even have to pretend this lesson. She actually hated this one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayla Taaffe

What were the zorwu? Don't they cover that in magical creatures? Dragons were a favourite of Sterling's. But what was a zorwu? Could someone explain that to her?

Quote:

Originally Posted by oh its Erik ok

Yeeeeeeaaaaah

Eloise didn't know any animals that got eye things or irritation. Her cat never did and that is were her knowledge ended. Maybe she should find Oreo once this is all over and give her a treat.

Maybe snakes did and Mr. boring over there according to Cel just went with the most smart...well you know answer imaginable and Eloise liked it. Eh guess it was back to note taking for her.

Wonder where Noble was going with this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

He wasn't too sure how his note would be received, but if nothing else the Ravenclaw was obligated to sit by him for the entirety of the lesson. Plenty of time to accomplish...something. Though, much to his relief, he seemed like the mountain he had to climb wasn't the Everest he had anticipated. So his eyes softened and he looked at her rather than pick up his quill again to write something else, mouthing 'I miss you' and knowing she would be able to read his lips easily.

The gum, however, was simply pocketed for later. Had it been mint flavored? He would take that as a promising sign.

As for the next question...Eiji found himself begrudgingly agreeing with Dooley and that soured his mood a bit. Though it was obvious that Professor Noble was looking for a specific answer, or so the Slytherin assumed at least. His thought process was to consider creatures that particularly relied on their eyes, such as bird of prey and owls and goats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl

Ben had remained quiet so far in the lesson, which wasn't unusual for him. Potions was an interesting class, but he did not have much to say about the questions posed thus far. Eye conditions was not something he was particularly knowledgeable in, whether human or animal-related, and it wasn't necessarily something he would have chosen to learn about on his own. It was clearly relevant to this lesson, though, so learn he would. He continued to quietly take notes on his fellow students' answers and Professor Noble's responses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

Was it time for Kaiser to speak up?

... No. It was not. He had a passing interest in creatures, because that was all that he had ever allowed himself. For reasons. Ultimately, however, his knowledge of animals great and small, magical or mundane, was basic at best, and he certainly didn't think very much about their susceptibility to eye conditions.

He had nothing to contribute here either, and was mostly just waiting for the part of the lesson where they brewed the potion. While he waited, Kaiser balanced his quill on his upper lip like a long feathery moustache, wriggling his mouth this way and that to keep it in place.

If he’d had to choose one word to describe the students’ answers to his question, it’d have to be lazy.

Noble practically glared at Patrick and Gunnar for answering ‘all creatures with eyes’, a low grumble in his throat. Generally when Noble asked a question, he didn’t do it just for sake of it. He wanted them to actually use their brains and think. At least some of the others – Nina, Vivienne, Eloise, Eiji, Ben and Kaiser - had had the thought and sense to stay quiet. Although, what was Kaiser doing with his quill? “Either write with that quill, Kaiser, or put it down,” Noble said sharply.

As for the rest of their answers? Well, it was a mixed bag, with some being better reasoned out than others.

SPOILER!!: Acromantula

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Creatures....having...eye irritation?

Were they going to be brewing eye medication for animals? That was an interesting direction for this lesson to go...but it was kind of intriguing.

She raised her hand after a bit of thought. "Well, acromantulas have lots of eyes. So their chances of having eye irritation or conjunctivitis is multiplied...significantly," she pointed out. Did bugs get eye infections? How did you treat a bug if it was sick?

Nettie's opinion was that you just stomped on it, and boom. Problem solved. That was probably not the correct answer though...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gritandgrace

Eniola raised her hand again, "Well, Acromantulas - I can only assume - as they have so many eyes." she continued. [B]"Being in the wild, especially with recent events, they're much more likely to get hurt as Vita said."

Thinking of the oversized, creepy crawlies alone made Eni shiver. She never did like bugs, especially large ones that have an appetite for humans.

“It seems likely that multiple eyes increases the risk of one having a problem,” Noble replied to Nettie and Eniola. “Not all of their eyes are equal though, with research suggesting that they have different roles. The centre eyes see detail, with the side eyes alert them of movement in their direction.”

SPOILER!!: Avalon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fireheart

Avalon usually didn't mind Potions class, but today seemed exponentially more boring than her previous lessons. They were talking about eye diseases, specifically ones that were known to affect Muggles. She had never heard of any witches or wizards getting any of the ailments that were mentioned, besides nearsightedness/farsightedness. Her father did have glasses, after all. Nevertheless, she jotted down a few of the examples on her parchment, just in case she needed to reference them later. Not having anything unique to add to the conversation, she decided to keep quiet.

But then Professor Noble shifted the conversation toward magical creatures, and class suddenly got a tiny bit more interesting-- even though Avalon couldn't really think of any creatures that experienced particular eye ailments. She thought of one of her favorite creatures, the Phoenix, and remembered that its healing powers came from its eyes. Perhaps an ailment could prevent that? She raised her hand, slightly unsure of her answer, but still wanting to contribute to the lesson in some way. "I don't know if there are any particular ailments that affect them, but phoenixes might have issues with eye irritation. If the bird had some sort of eye disease, would its tears no longer have healing powers?" Her response had turned into a question, but she didn't want to sound too confident in her answer in case she was wrong.

The next hand up was Avalon’s, and Noble nodded at the first year. “It depends on the ailment, but yes, there are a couple of infections that can adversely affect a phoenix’s healing powers.” Not to the point of no healing, as far as he was aware, but they could weaken it.

SPOILER!!: Kneazles

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ginevra

This question was stumping Daisy and it took her a little while for an answer to appear in her mind. She slowly raised her hand and said with a touch of uncertainty in her voice, "Kneazles could get issues with their eyes because of the third eyelid I think they possess as some feline breeds do."

Quote:

Originally Posted by SneakySeverusSnape

Analiese fiddled with her pearly white quill as she listened to the others' answers. Then she thought about it herself. What creatures would most likely have eye issues? "What about kneazles? Muggle cats are known to get feline conjunctivitis. And since kneazles are cat-like creatures, I'd take an educated guess that their eyes are quite similar." She answered the question - in quite a lot of detail, as a matter of a fact. She silently scribbled down notes as she half-listened to the other answers. She pondered to herself where Professor Noble going with this, talking about eye illnesses and all. The young Claw placed her quill back in her desk and pretended to be interested in the lesson. She was normally obsessed with potions, but ailments of the eye? Never.

It had been worth them taking their time to think; their answers were decent enough. “Indeed, kneazles do have similar problems to other cats, and can get conjunctivitis.”

SPOILER!!: Cassidy

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrapehSarah

Creatures that could have eye problems? Cassidy frowned slightly when someone already said Acromantula because that was the first thing that she could think of. They had tons of them. There had to be other animals that had eye ailments as well though. But what... She bit her lip, as usual when she was thinking over a question. She raised her hand when she finally thought of something. "Maybe centaurs since they have eyes very similar to ours." It made sense to her since their top half was pretty much human.

And another one who had actually bothered to use some common sense. “I believe they do suffer from similar ailments to humans, Cassidy, yes.” Not that he felt inclined to ask the Divination instructor to check. Even if he did, chances are he’d get a riddle for an answer.

SPOILER!!: Tina

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Tina simply nodded at Noble's response to her answer. She wasn't surprised or particularly proud of herself when she learned it was correct. She personally knew someone who'd had that very eye ailment, so she knew it would be. She'd copied down the answers that had been mentioned before hers and continued to do so for the answers that came after hers, looking up only when Noble addressed the class again.

Well, that question took the lesson in an unexpected direction! Okay, so creatures…wait, did that mean magical creatures only or could they name any creature with a tendency toward eye ailments? Tina's first thoughts turned to brachycephalic breeds of dogs and cats that were prone to eye diseases, but she didn't want to risk being wrong on the grounds of naming a non magical creature, especially when everybody else was sticking to magical creatures. She decided to play it safe and come up with something else. She thought of dragons. Their eyes were their weakest point, so it stood to reason that they'd be more prone to eye irritation… but the Hufflepuff prefect had already mentioned them, and Tina Dantes did not piggyback off other people's answers, *especially not Archer Calrissian's!

Then it came to her. Sphinxes! Tina's hand went up, and she said, "What about sphinxes? They're native to Egypt, which has a predominantly sandy desert climate, and sand is a known eye irritant… so wouldn't that make them more susceptible to eye irritation?" She wasn't 100% confident in that answer, so she worded it in the form of a question. That way if it was too much of a stretch, she wasn't technically wrong I'm front of everyone.

Noble nodded at the Ravenclaw. “Sand is definitely an irritant,” as anyone who had been to sandy beach on a windy day could attest. “Although sphinxes actually have multiple eyelids, a bit like camels. One of them specifically helps clean off their eyes, and can protect the ball in sandstorms.”

SPOILER!!: Vita

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Vita agreed with several of her classmates. Any creature with eyes could suffer eye problems, though some species might be more prone to them than others. "I imagine creatures out in the wild have more of a chance to suffer from an eye ailment than those being looked after by a caretaker in a more controlled environment. Easier to observe the start of a problem and try to take care of it when someone is watching out for you."

Noble considered the Slytherin for a moment, eyes narrowing. “It depends,” he said finally. “But in theory, yes.”

SPOILER!!: Kamryn

Quote:

Originally Posted by MunchyBubbles

Kamryn let out a soft sigh of relief as she had gotten that right. She really didn’t want to fail her head of house, she wanted to make him proud of her.. and her being a Hufflepuff.

Her brown head naturally swiveled towards Patrick as he spoke, for reasons.. that she wasn’t even going to think about or divulge right now. But she smiled in agreement. Most creatures seemed like they would have eye issues.. she gave him a tiny little smile before raising her own hand in the hair.

“I feel like crups would have lots of eye issues Professor. ” She said softly.

Seeing as they were close enough to muggle dogs, and she knew muggle dogs got cataracts.

And he wasn’t surprised that crups came up as an answer, as they were a relatively common pet. “They can do, yes. Cataracts and conjunctivitis are both fairly common in crups.”

SPOILER!!: Archer

]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

Honestly, Archer had stayed quiet because the one eye ailment that came to mind was one that had been said already. Twice. And repeating answers could get rather boring pretty fast. So could the whole 'all creatures everything' aesthetic. She was truly hoping that this wasn't going to be a trend for the whole day, because while she didn't particularly hate creatures, several classes of dealing with them was too much. Unless they were big cats like the zorwu.

"Dragons, thanks to all that smoke from breathing fire." She knew smoke irritated human eyes anyway, so why not dragons. Unless they had built up a tolerance for it, thanks to being around them all the time....?

Noble nodded, dragons was the answer he’d been looking for. Unfortunately the prefect was let down by her reasoning. “Smoke is not the problem when it comes to dragons.” They’d evolved a tolerance to it. “Rather, humans are.” He glanced around the room, pausing a moment in Vita’s direction, as he let that sink in. “Even in captivity, the conjunctivitis curse is regularly used since their eyes are their most vulnerable part. Today we’ll be brewing a healing potion for dragons and humans alike that can be used to restore sight, the oculus potion.” Before that though, he had a quick activity for them to try.

“We’ll get to the brewing in a moment. On the side, there’s a tray of goggles. Each pair simulates a different type of sight problem. Go retrieve a pair, and once you’ve returned to you bench, put them on. Then I’d like you to try mixing 3 teaspoons each of standard ingredient, beetle eyes, and valerian sprigs with 4 drops of Lethe River water with your mortar and pestle.”

It was a very simple potion, but they should find it anything but that with their impaired vision. Honestly, he'd be surprised if anyone managed to get it the perfect periwinkle colour.



ooc note: this is just a little fun activity to show how difficult it can be to brew even a simple potion with impaired sight. The goggles cover a range of vision impairments, including foggy vision (e.g. cataracts), blurry vision (e.g. short or long sightedness), and complete blindness (e.g. the goggles are basically a blindfold). Feel free to be creative! You've got about 48 hours or so until I've move on to the next activity.

Eni got up from her bench and grabbed an unsuspecting pair of goggles. Walking back she put them on and began to gather her ingredients...or not. What the...? She couldn't see. Anything! Ugh. This is not how she wanted her day to go, but she could work with it.

Who was she sitting with again? Maybe they could work together on this. She's pretty good with potions normally, so as long as the person can see they should be fine.

"Hey, I can't see. The stupid goggles have blinded me. Want to work together? I'm pretty good with potion work, I just need someone to be my eyes."

Was the professor mad?

On a normal day she could easily blow up the class - with her vision impaired she would most definitely kill everybody. Frowning deeply, she glanced at Eiji - hardly thinking he was all that impressed by the exercise.

"Is the professor ready for all the disaster this may bring?" she asked Eiji, as she got up to go retrieve a pair of googles.

BECAUSE SERIOUSLY DUDE.

Also, would cheating be wrong in this case if she did it to potentially save everyone's life?

Maeve half-muttered an apology on the shuffling. Yes she could walk properly, but also she was only a sixth year... not that it made much a difference. Irregardless she was a week away from her seventeenth birthday. Smiles for the best friend who came in after her.

And they were talking about eye ailments, ironically enough. Cause at almost seventeen that was something she was concerned about. NOT. But she was fully aware of some - such as what Gunnar mentioned with the nearsighted and farsighted. As far as any others? Glaucoma, perhaps? Wasn't the pressure one? Oh, they were talking now about creatures who might suffer from eye ailments? Couldn't ANY creature that had eyes - which was all of them - have problems with their eyes? Sure that wasn't super specific but, it was true.

Also, she was curious ... could the oculus potion be used for corrective purposes of sight? Like to correct nearsightedness? She knew muggles had methods that used lasers and such, but did a potion work witches and wizards? She jotted down that question to ask for later, because right now it seemed they were having a little exercise.


Just as she was about to put on her pair of goggles she'd randomly picked up, she'd heard Eniola complaining on not seeing. "I'll work alongside you, but I think we're meant to prepare our own? Perhaps we can try using our other senses to determine the right amounts?" Just an idea. With that, she slipped on the pair of goggles she grabbed. Great, she could see into the distance just fine, but anything within a foot of her - aka her whole workstation - was super blurry. She supposed it was better than not seeing at all though, as was Eni's problem.

Much more common in men?!

Sure, the lesson had moved on and the Professor was talking about..... uh, animals? Yeah, whatever. But his mind was still on that one sentence that Noble had said, telling him that he could potentially be or gain colourblindness. He shot a wide-eyed look over at Jó, silently wondering if he was right in being scared or..... if he should just ignore it and let it go.

Maybe option two.

When it was time to move on, Lucas shot up from his seat and moved over to the tray where all the goggles are. He grabbed one at random and headed back to his own seat before placing them over his eyes-

.............

...... uhhhh.........

SQUINT.

He couldn't SEE. Or, well, he could see but he couldn't see see, you know? Everything was very foggy and he couldn't make out anything, just shapes and very very fuzzy outlines.

UH.

Reaching up a hand, he first held it somewhere in front of his goggles and then started waving it around wildly.

This was a bad idea.

Eni was a bit more downcast. She didn't want to screw up, but she totally understood. Well, better buck up and do it. She thought as she tried to feel out for her supplies.

"That's fair. Do you think it'd be possible for you to tell me what each thing is as I grab it? It's hard when it's all in vials. At least from there I can separate it accordingly and figure out how to measure it myself." She looked to her left, hoping that's where the other girl is....it sounded like...Maeve? "I should've thought of this before I put the goggles on. Is it against the rules to take them off now?" Eni felt lost without her eyesight. She couldn't imagine how others are able to do this every day. Very impressed. She was very impressed indeed.

It did sink in, the fact that humans could be the problem just as much as they could be the solution. She nodded her head to show as much, her expression thoughtful.

The goggles? Well, given the reactions from classmates who'd already put them on, Vita was guessing they were going to make this task extremely difficult. The seventh year allowed herself a moment more of clear vision before sliding off her seat and selecting some for herself. It was luck of the draw, really, and her goggles turned out to be the kind that would eventually give her a major headache.

Everything was a blur. She strained and squinted and try as she might, there was no way around it. She was going to have to bring her other senses into play for this if she had any hope of coming close to mixing and measuring correctly.

Hm.

Oh, what a handy potion to have. From the way he made it sound it also cured blindness as well. If Eloise was still in the DADA mindset she would have wondered how someone did try to sell it to muggles for a handy profit. Tho Aurors are there for a reason. She got up and over to get a pair of googles putting her up in a ponytail before putting them on at her seat and ooh....


Everything seemed normal right now. Not blurry or anything and well she could see. So something had to up

Very Very suspicious

She started looking for the ingredients by color and well considering her goggles were for color blindness she was picking the wrong things since what was standard ingredient didn't look quite like it to her.

Hmm...

Daisy was feeling quite nervous as to which goggles she would end up selecting. She didn't want to make even the slightest of errors if her potion. The seventh-year headed towards the tray of googles and selected a pair. After returning to her workstation, Daisy put on her goggles. and found that objects in the distance were very blurry but anything that was in very close proximity to her eyes was clear.

Did this mean that the Hufflepuff would have to squint? "Brilliant," she thought, sarcastically, not looking forward to any additional lines around her eyes. However, she was very determined to make this potion and so she carefully began to plan out her method of making this potion.

......................

Was he wrong? Gunnar hadn't quite expected that reaction from Noble as he hadn't really meant his answer to be lazy or cheeky. He was simply pointing out that the mere fact that eyes existed suggested the possibility of an ailment and therefore any creature with that particular body part could be affected. But... yeah. Anyway. Moving on. He'd get back to work now.

............was he serious? How were they meant to brew a potion with impaired eyesight? Gunnar knew potions to be a rather precise science, so this seemed to have disastrous potential. Hopefully this potion was nothing that could explode.

Grabbing a pair of goggles at random, the Slytherin put them on once he returned to his workstation. Oh this was terrible. A dark spot right in the middle, though the outer edge or peripheral seemed okay. But this was going to be a pain to try to see anything if he was constantly trying to look at one side or another. Good thing he had already gotten his supplies out.

So they were going to be brewing an eyesight healing potion without proper eyesight. Seemed safe enough. Avalon hoped to Merlin that no actual humans or dragons would be drinking them. This whole exercise could have some disastrous consequences. After jotting down Professor Noble's instructions on her parchment, she made her way over to the tray of goggles. Crossing her fingers that the pair she selected wouldn't render her totally blind, she closed her eyes and slipped them on.

When she opened them, her vision wasn't blurry, but it wasn't exactly clear either. It was more foggy than anything. She figured the goggles simulated that Muggle ailment that someone had pointed out earlier - cataracts, as she recalled.

Avalon glanced back down at her parchment to read what she needed to do for the potion. 2 (or was that a 3?) teaspoons of beetle eyes and valerian sprigs. There was a cloudy spot directly over the measurement she had written down. She tried squinting, holding her notebook higher in the air, and even crouching down, but she still couldn't read the number. Oh boy. This was going to be difficult.

........ Nina stared at their Professor.

This was the most useless activity they could ever preform. Obviously a vision impairment would make it much more difficult to get anything done, even a potion as simple as this one. Why did they need to demonstrate? It wasn't as if that would help clarify something which would have otherwise been difficult to understand. The concept was so entirely straightforward that Nina was even convinced the likes of Céline would understand it without needing a demonstration.

With a fair amount of annoyance, the Slytherin did make her way up to the front to grab a pair of goggles for herself. She would obviously be forgoing a partner for this simple activity, as none of the cute boys were sitting nearby. When she slipped her goggles on, she was met with a... surprise. Blurry vision. Stimulated near-sightedness, surely.

Something, which, Nina was accustomed to. Yes, that's right. Despite the fact that only ONE person in the castle knew (Keenan Burton, of all people), Nina Castillo was near-sighted. She wore contacts which typically fixed this entire issue, but she was still quite used to the blurry vision, which the goggles were inducing. She had to suffer with it for the final two weeks leading up to the winter holidays. Her own fault, as she refused to wear her glasses in public even when her contacts had run out. BUT STILL.

This would be a piece of cake.

"Well the good news, I don't believe any of the ingredients are explosive or anything, so if we accidentally add the wrong thing or too much... or not enough, no foul." Maeve supposed that was a silver lining anyway. And if she had to guess, it was effort more than correctness on this, since it was doubtful anyone would be able to brew a perfect potion. Unless they lucked out with a farsightedness pair of goggles, since potions required closeup work. "Probably," Maeve laughed. "So all the ingredients are located to your right... any chance you can recognize the bottle shapes?" Cause that was what she was going to try to attempt. Like the valerian sprigs .... that she totally mixed up her feeling and added three teaspoons of that, thinking it was standard ingredient. Which means of course, the Gryffindor added the standard ingredient like it was valerian sprigs. Oops? But Lethe River Water she definitely knew that bottle shape..... shake ... shake ... shake ... how many drops did she add? Ugh, why was the drops blurry??? She couldn't count proper. Eh, one more for good measure.

Except... being that everything was a blur at her workstation, she kind of was messy and didn't exactly get half the ingredients into her mortar. Which she discovered when she reached for the beetle eyes and her hand touched some powder (obviously the standard ingredient) on the counter. Uhhh...... Right, so much for using touch. Carefully cupping her hand, she brushed it into her hand and then used her clean hand to feel for the bowl and carefully cup it in. Hopefully there wasn't anything else on the counter? Not best practice, obviously.

Thankfully, Daisy had her mortar and pestle, dropper and measuring spoon already laid out on her workstation. Being highly skilled in non-verbal cleaning charms, Daisy managed to clean her equipment without any problems, despite the vision problem caused by her goggles.

Now, it was time for the ingredients. Her nose was almost touching her notebook as she read the instructions that she had written down. Daisy retrieved the required ingredients, ensuring that she had carefully read each label.

She then grabbed her measuring spoon and measured out three teaspoons of standard ingredient before adding it to the mortar. She used her wand to clean her spoon which gave her some time to rest her eyes due to squinting slightly.

Next, she very carefully measured three teaspoons each of beetle eyes and valerian sprigs and added them to her mortar, making sure she cleaned the spoon between adding each ingredient.

After giving her measuring spoon a final clean, Daisy grabbed her dropper and very slowly measured and added the four drops of Lethe River water to her potion. Daisy cleaned her dropper and closed her eyes for a moment. She was starting to feel a bit queasy due to her new vision impairment. After a few moments, Daisy opened her eyes and mixed the ingredients together using her pestle.

Ailments of the eye. Cordelia was painfully aware of her high risk of developing eye diseases. ”Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes from having chronically high blood sugar where the blood vessels in the retina are damaged, which can cause vision loss.” It was not something that Cordelia wanted to think about. It was a very real possibility for her that she could develop such complications in the future if she couldn’t keep her blood sugar in range most of the time. Of course she could live a long life and everything that everyone else could do, and she had pretty good control over her type 1 diabetes most of the time, but the risk was always there. Now wasn’t the time for worrying about that though. They were talking about something else. ”I think dogs can suffer from the same eye ailments that humans can.” Creature eyes really weren’t her area of expertise.

A potion that could restore sight, interesting. ”What is the extent of the healing powers of the oculus potion? Could it fully restore sight to someone who had been completely blind their whole life, or does it just cure minor ailments like conjunctivitis?” When it was her turn to get a pair of goggles for the exercise, Cordelia picked one at random. Once she returned to her bench, Cordelia pulled the goggles over her eyes. Instantly the world around her became blurry. Experimentally she put her hand out in front of her and moved it closer until she was able to see it a bit more clearly. By the time she could see her hand better, it was only a few inches from her face. Of course she still didn’t have perfect vision at this distance, but she could work with it. Making a potion with vision like this was going to be difficult. Cordelia got her face right down in her tray to try to read the labels on the ingredients. Blindly, she tried to pick up one of the jars but she missed and was just off enough to knock an entire jar of something over. Hopefully that was a solid that could be recovered and not the lethe river water, because that would really screw up her potion. Was it even safe to have her face this close to all the potions things? Probably not. Things were not going so well with the mixing. She felt around her bench for a teaspoon, and upon finding one she dipped it into an as of yet unspilled jar of standard ingredient and spooned some into her mortar. Unbeknownst to her, most of the standard ingredient was actually ending up on the bench approximately four inches to the left of the mortar. See (or not, because of the goggles), everything was going great!

Ah, so she had been correct in guessing dragons, but wrong in the why. Honestly, she hadn't paid enough attention when they studied dragons to remember about the conjunctivitis curse. Ooops? It was just one of those hazards of having handsome male professors teaching adolescents.

Archer chose a pair of goggles and returned to her seat before pulling them on. At once, everything went foggy. Like, it was like being outside on one of those really foggy days. Reaching out, she had to feel around for her cauldron to orient herself. Once she had some idea of where things located in relation to each other she reached for her teaspoon....and missed. She didn't even manage to grab anything. Just air. So maybe she wasn't as well oriented as she'd thought.

Analiese quietly listened to Professor Noble's instructions. As soon as he finished, she stood up and shuffled over to the tray of goggles. She grabbed a pair of goggles and sat down. She reluctantly put them on as per instructions. Thank Merlin she had chosen one that let her see things near her. Short-sightedness, probably? She looked up at the board. It was all blurry. She was wearing short-sightedness goggles, after all. She squinted, trying to read the ingredients. Fairly better. Was that... three teaspoons of... standard ingredient? Slowly but carefully, she looked around for the jar. She spotted what looked like standard ingredient. She grabbed it but missed. Her hands went inside the bowl of beetle eyes instead.

Well he could see his hands, at least. Kind of.

Frowning, Lucas squinted at the board and then at the ingredients in front of him. This was going to be a LOT harder than he realised, wasn't it? A small sigh escaped from his lips before he started with....... uh...... standard ingredient? Whatever. He leaned riiiiiiight up close to this little heap and gave it a good, long sniff. Yeah, smelt like standard ingredient, alright. And hey, look! He could even see some of the herbs when he was this close. Almost nose-to-nose with the stuff.

Maybe that was the secret. Maybe he just needed to be, uh, close to the ingredients.

.............

Moving ON, he heaped up as much of the standard ingredient as he could with the spoon and started dumping it into the grey-coloured object that he was going to assume was the mortar. Did he know if it was three teaspoons exactly? No. Did he care? Again, no. And then came...... uh..... flowers? What was this? Holding the bunch up to his nose, he gave it another quick sniff while taking in the white colour of the flowers. Okay, these were the sprigs, right?

In you go!

Next: eyes. Beetle eyes.

Merlin help him.

Lucas paused for a moment to turn his nose up at the idea of the eyes before feeling around his workspace. Eyes..... eyes..... they had to be here some- THERE! That felt squishy enough. Picking one up, he held it clooooose to his own eyes - or as close as he could get it. Yeah, that looked like eyes alright. They went into the mortar as well. How many? He didn't know and wasn't counting.

Something he did need to count were the drops of the Lethe River water but....... well. Trying to see something that small was not happening. No no. Not today. He reached around his workspace for the stopper, scattering other objects in the process. Grabbing it, he pulled up as much of the water as he could and then held it over the mortar where the other things were.

Breathe.

There was one quick squeeze....... and then a pause. And then another, this time longer, squeeze. And then another pause.

Uhh, was there nothing coming out of the stopper or was his vision that bad?

Leaning veeeeeeery close to the mortar, he tried to give the stopper another squeeze. This time, there was clearly a whizz of blue liquid that shot out for the briefest of seconds. Some more squeezes later until he was sure he had four - but actually more - drops of the water in the mortar.

Straightening up, Lucas rubbed the back of his neck and shoulder, maybe even stretching a little in the process. Was this what it felt like to be old?! What a nightmare.

Tina was disappointed that her answer had been way off - and even more so that the most annoying student in the school's had been more or less correct. She should've guessed that sphinxes had adapted to sandy climates… serves her right for trying to come up with something different. At least her answer hadn't earned her a glare like those two Slytherin boys', she supposed.

Tina's mood improved slightly when she heard they were brewing the oculus potion. She excelled at the careful, meticulous work of potion making, and this one sounded useful and - Blink, blink. Did Noble say what she thought he said? The mention of goggles caught her off guard, and for one wild moment, Tina thought they would be attempting the oculus potion with the goggles on. Thank Merlin that wasn't the case! But even so, this sounded like a recipe for disaster.

Tina repeated the potion instructions over and over inside her head as she went to grab a pair of goggles. 3 teaspoons standard ingredient, fish eyes, and valerian sprigs, 4 drops Lethe river water, mix in mortar and pestle… Odds were that as soon as she put the goggles on, she wouldn't be able to read her notes, so she wanted to have it memorized, just in case. She returned to her station, goggles in hand, and took one last look around, trying to commit the location of each item to memory. Maybe she'd get lucky and have an eye ailment she could work around, like near-sightedness or far-sightedness. She put the goggles on, and… no such luck. It was complete darkness.

Tina's thoughts immediately turned to her partially blind friend/father figure. Was this what he saw, or more accurately didn't see out of his bad eye? It made her sad to think about, but that sadness soon turned to a fresh wave of anger at the school that turned its back on him. Focus, Tina! she told herself sternly, trying to calm herself. She had a job to do - a job that was going to be a lot harder with the complete loss of her eyesight!

First things first, she needed to find her mortar and pestle. Luckily, she was organized and always put it in the same place, so that should make it a little easier. She felt around the table in the direction she thought her materials were until she felt something round… and hollow. Then she felt inside for an oblong object. Found it! She carefully brought the mortar and pestle closer, feeling along the table with her other hand to make sure she didn't place it too close to the edge. Now she had to clean it. Hmm… this could be dangerous! Blindly pointing her wand seemed like a bad idea, so she brought her mortar and pestle to the tip of her wand instead and performed a quick scourgify on each piece.

Now came the hard part, actually adding the ingredients. Keeping one hand on her mortar and pestle so she wouldn't lose them, Tina felt around the table and grabbed a container of… something. The contents had a dry, almost crumbly texture, and when she sniffed it, it had a strong herbal smell, like a bunch of spices mixed together. Must be the standard ingredient. Tina felt for her teaspoon and brought it to where she thought the standard ingredient was but only managed to scoop air. Hmm… let's try that again. She used her spoon to feel around until it tapped against something solid. Almost there… she moved her spoon up until it tapped against the rim of the container. There it was! She finally managed to scoop a spoon full of the standard ingredient, but when she dumped it into what she thought was her mortar, she only succeeded in getting it all over the table.

Ugh, this was frustrating! She needed a new plan. Again, Tina used her spoon to feel for the standard ingredient container, but this time, she kept feeling around even after she had her spoonful until her spoon clinked against the edge of her mortar. After dumping her spoonful, she felt inside. She was pleased to find some standard ingredient there, but there was no way to know how much had spilled on the table between the container and her mortar. She repeated the slow process for two more spoonfuls, then put the standard ingredient back - or maybe not back, but at least aside.

After cleaning her spoon again, Tina felt around for the next container. She stuck her hand inside and felt something round and slimy… fish eyes. Since she now knew she had to feel around for both the ingredient container and her mortar, the scooping process went a little easier this time, but there was still no accounting for spillage. Once Tina was satisfied that at least some of her 3 teaspoons of fish eyes made it into her mortar, she cleaned her spoon again, then felt for the final container. The contents of this one had a similar texture as the first. Was that the standard ingredient again? No, when she brought it to her nose, it had a different aroma. She found the valerian sprigs! Time to start the process of feeling around for the right places to scoop and dump again…

Tina had no idea how long it had taken her to find and add what she hoped was close to 3 teaspoons of standard ingredient, fish eyes, and valerian sprigs. but she couldn't help but feel a bit pleased with herself when she finished. Somehow miraculously, she hadn't run out of time with all that feeling around, and there was only one ingredient left. She set her spoon down and felt along the table for her dropper, giving it a quick scourgify. Now if she could just find the Lethe water. she'd be good to go, more or less. She felt around until she touched what felt like a glass vial. Was that it? She held the vial up to her ear. shaking it slightly, and it made a sloshing sound. Whatever was in there was liquid, so it was probably safe to assume this was the correct container. Tina uncapped the vial and felt along for the top with the tip of her dropper. She filled up her dropper, but without her sight, there was no way to tell for sure how many drops she was putting into her mortar. She strained to listen for a litter pattern liquid dropping, but any sound was too faint to be heard. She'd just have to guess. She squeezed her dropper four times, hoping that only one drop escaped with each squeeze, then set her dropper aside.

Now she could move on to the mixing part… after she found her mortar and pestle again. As she mixed her ingredients, Tina wondered what were the chances that she'd added the correct amounts of everything. Probably next to none. She kept going until her arm started to get tired. Was she done? Without her sight, there was no way to tell what color the potion in her mortar was or even if it was the right color, so she decided to err on the side of caution and keep mixing until time ran out.

Well, apparently Noble didn't appreciate talent. Straightening his face, Kaiser let the quill drop to the desk and followed it up with an exaggerated salute directed at the Potions Master, but left it at that.

At least he didn't have much longer to wait before getting started with something, though Kaiser was somewhat disappointed to hear that they still weren't at the stage of actual brewing. This was more like... a test. Or something. Sounded almost like they were being set up to fail. Or something.

Even so, Kaiser went and grabbed himself a pair of goggles, and returned to his workstation to put them on, at which point his vision became totally blurry, like the goggles were all fogged up or something. He scrunched up his nose, and began peering around at his ingredients, looking for the beetle eyes.