How long had she been brewing anyway? It had probably only been close to an hour, but Ariadne felt like she'd been here for an entire afternoon. It was a good thing she wasn't brewing a Polyjuice Potion. That took a whole month, and at the rate she was going, she'd probably get the feeling that brewing would last a whole year!

Ariadne's owl ruffled its feathers again and gave a look of annoyance. Or maybe that was just Ariadne's worry taking over again. "Sorry, girl," she said. "This'll be over soon." The owl didn't respond, of course, but pretty soon, she'd hopefully be able to understand what its thoughts were.

By this time, the simmering process had lasted exactly three minutes, so Ariadne began stirring three times in a clockwise direction. *stir stir stir*