BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The timer went off, and Sam adjusted the heat down before resetting the timer for two minutes. She pulled on her shiny clean gloves, and waited for it to go off again, before adding the 5 fire seeds one at a time. Reasonably slowly...she didn't throw them in at least. Next came the 15 pieces of rock salt. She'd tried to choose uniformly sized pieces, because it seemed the right thing to do, and gently dropped them in.

And more stirring. This potion was certainly a workout.

The potion turned yellow, and Sam smiled. That was definitely a reassuring sign, even if she still had several steps to go.

The next of which was adding the Wiggentree bark. She gently laid it on the surface of the liquid, before sliding it gently across to the side of the cauldron one piece at a time. The heat was turned back up, and she perched on her stool whilst she waited for the bubbles to reappear at the surface to indicate it was back at to boiling. She crushed the betony leaves in her hand, and dropped those in too, waiting for the liquid to change colour.

It took a while to go, the yellow first going a murky brown....followed by an equally murky green. Sam sighed, annoyed at herself for screwing it up.

Sapphire blue it was not.

Except, it didn't stop changing at the green. It kept going, the yellow tone disappearing, and gradually turning blue. Phew. She was nearly there, and whilst it might not be as potent as she hoped, it was close to being right.

She cleaned up in the five minutes it took to cool, putting her ingredients away and cleaning her tools. She then took a pipette and bottled the liquid in her already prepared vials. The alimony was added to the top, and she sealed it carefully.

And the dregs, the gunk at the bottom of her cauldron. That was added to her box. Picking up her wand, she drew the staff of healing, and said the incantation. "Venenum Inverto."

Done? She sure hoped so. It'd been a loooong lesson.