Janelle took a peek to the side and saw that Zeke had begun to work on his potion. Knowing that she'd better get started, she checked her notes. Potions was like cooking. It was best if you had all of your ingredients ready before you started the process. She needed to measure and prepare her ingredients before she could start brewing. She had already measured her red wine and prune juice when she got them from the front of the classroom. Now she had to ready everything else.

First, Janelle gathered her Hairy fungus and measured out two grams. All the while, she was resisting the urge to gag at its nastiness. Taking a deep breath, she placed some in her nice, clean mortar. Picking up her pestle, she began to mash the fungus until she thought it looked "right". Once that job was done, Janelle poured it into a bowl and put it aside. Janelle cleaned her mortar and pestle so it would be ready for the next step.

The next step involved crushing the tortoise shell into powder. Now this was going to be a challenge. Janelle decided that she would try to crush some shell and then measure out the proper amount once it was in its powdered form. She took a piece of tortoise shell and placed it in her mortar. Then she put her pestle on top of it and began to press down on it with her pestle. Leaning into it, Janelle tried to use her weight to her advantage. This was not easy, but the shell did manage to break somewhat. How long did they have to brew this potion? At the rate she was going, Janelle would still be crushing her shell when the next Potions lesson started. After what seemed like an eternity, Janelle finally managed to get it to a powdery form. Using the mortar and pestle was always Janelle's favorite part of preparing for a potion. It allowed her to take out her stress, anger or whatever on the item that was being crushed. This time though, it made her tired and made her arms ache. She couldn't dwell on that now because she had a lot more work to do. After measuring two grams of powdered tortoise shell, she put that in another clean bowl and set it aside as well. Now what was next?