Tossing his notes aside, Ethan reached out for the fluxweed leaves, cleaned his silver knife once more and sliced those in three equal parts. The rest was neatly placed on an empty tray, which he will have to vanish after he’s done with the potion. Scooping up the leaves, he carefully placed the ingredient inside his cauldron.

Forcing himself to tune out all the noise around him, the Slytherin furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he got his wooden stick and wand at the same time. Ethan pointed his wand at the wooden stick to clean it, only to realize that he was actually holding the wooden stick, and trying to clean his wand with it.

Well, too much concentration? Probably. Switching both sticks, Ethan scourgified the wooden stick with his wand this time. Shaking his head, he consulted the blackboard once more and absorbed the eighth step. Should be easy. He’s been doing the stirring business since he was a first year in Durmstrang, so no worries. Carefully dipping his wooden stick into the cauldron, Ethan stirred the contents clockwise once, then counter-clockwise once. Stir clockwise, stir counter-wise.

11...12...13...14.

Aaaaaaaaand? Checkpoint? Muddy consistency? Yeup. All good here.

Two measures of boomslang skin were gathered, and those were also added after Ethan was satisfied with the muddy consistency of his potion. The Slytherin eyed his new watch from his father, and waited for five minutes.

Tick...tock...tick...tock.

Ten newt larvae were added exactly at 00:05:00, and the Slytherin was happy to see his potion turn into...clear water. Well, if it were muggles, they’d think that the Professor was just trolling them. They started off with clear water, and they ended up with it as if nothing happened. As for Ethan though, he knew his base potion’s a success, so there’s that.